With excitement, and some trepidation, driver Pon Chai fired up the Toyota Crown and headed north from Trang Town toward the distant hills. Reputedly a local expert, Pon Chai's cover had been blown as he sheepishly asked for directions at least a dozen times that day. It seems even the locals hadn't been to these hidden Buddhist sites.

Originating in India, Buddhism was born approximately 2,500 years ago. It can be traced as far back as the first century, in Thailand, when Sri Lankan monks established the Theravada version of Buddhism in the North. Today, about 90 percent of Thailand's 63 million people are Buddhists. Southern Thailand presents abundant historical relics of the Buddhist faith, as well as newer monuments and temples.

Little is documented about Trang's Buddha Trail. A rough list of sites is outlined in an old 1970s publication, and two or three references appear on the Internet. A hastily compiled list of seven sites was the key to our hunt into the hills. Although we half expected to find our-selves choking on the diesel fumes of packed buses along the way, in fact the day produced no other tourists. My young son waited patiently while monks rose, donned their best robes and accompanied us to each offering. Our signatures were the first English-language entries in the temple guestbooks.

An amazing array of Buddha images lie along the trail, from con-ventional styles to the more obscure. A reclining Buddha at Tham E-So sports a knowing smile with lips that would be the envy of most collagen-enhanced super-models. Wat Phut Khoa Thong's Buddha image wears a crown called a serd, normally associated with southern Thai dance, and Tham Phra Phut's reclining Buddha has an amazingly beautiful face.

With little advance information to go on, what unfolds on the Buddha Trail is always fresh and exciting; even Pon Chai was amazed at some of our discoveries in his own province.

The truly unexpected included a statue of Khunnoi Kiririak, the first Muslim to settle in this area, which sits on a cave level of Tham Khao Pina some-where between a rusted-out Dodge front end and a variety of Buddhist images. This wonderful site, with its rich olive-green mountainside and six levels of cave, was oddly enhanced by the truck relic wrapped neatly with yellow ribbon. Perhaps it was the vehicle used when King Rama VII visited in 1926, and, in the absence of "an old oak tree", the yellow ribbon had been tied here in hope of his return. His Highness's visit is duly noted on the cave walls, with the site of his luncheon ex-citedly pointed out by the monks. From within, eyes are drawn from the darkness of the cave through shadowed stalactites across to a massive red-and-gold temple. The only sounds heard here are the squeakings of bats, the breathing of visitors and the click and flash of camera shutters.

Neither do you expect to see dead people displayed in public. At Wat Khao Phra, a dead abbot has been encased, hunched over, for the past 40 years in a Houdini-style glass case. Hair and scalp remain largely intact, and the flesh remains on his thinly covered bones. The solemn respect for this mo-nastery's dead abbot is passed on to visitors. To view or photograph the abbot requires appropriate kneeling and prayer rituals. It took us a while to work it out, but eventually Pon Chai explained the need and we kneeled between changes of lens.

Some red sym-bols above the abbot and associated statues remain unex-plained by anthropologists, and are proudly pointed out by smiling monks in saffron robes. Other anthropological mysteries also exist at Wat Keereewihan, where Buddhas, adorned in odd gowns, sit in unusual positions for Buddha images. Their thin arms lie to their sides, and they look very uncomfortable indeed.

We also found ourselves very uncomfortable, when we asked about an intact "fossil" of a 3,000-year-old man. In the monk's excitement to display this prized possession, he ripped open the glass case and thrust the relic towards us. Scared of dropping such a precious object, we respectfully declined. Similarly, a young yellow-robed monk excitedly invited our party to prod and feel the oyster fossils at Pina, the young lad appeared new to the monastery, a clear sign of his transition being the Arsenal Football Club badge sewn neatly on a discreet corner of his robe.

One monk who didn't seem like a newbie was a twinkle-eyed, gap-toothed old fellow swathed in a robe of gold. After showing us through the very spiritual Tham Phra Phut, with its ancient statues and commanding view over the "hidden valley", he invited us to view some of the relics found hidden behind a Buddha image in a secluded cave. Under the im-pression that monks had released them-selves from all worldly possessions, we watched this elderly man reach beneath his robe to pull out a key ring with enough keys on it to handle an eight-storey office block. He used some of these to reveal a trove of ancient relics, including a 1,000-year-old mummified corpse sitting in a glass case, and row upon row of silverware, lacquerware and pottery, all precious objects hidden here in times gone by. Three theories exist as to why these items were hidden here, apparently, but we didn't really understand any of the stories.

Another tale relates to an image at the simplest of the temples, Wat Phra Ngam, which is located on a thin dirt road off the main highway to Trang. An image of the Lord Buddha's head, crafted from pure gold, was stolen some years ago from a Chak Pra festival and covered in concrete to hide the precious object. Fortunately it was rediscovered, reclaimed by the monastery, repaired and proudly placed back on display for all to admire.

Other, more playful, images can be found on the Buddha Trail. A reclining Buddha at Wat Phut Khoa Thong wears a serd crown. Like a Burger King birthday hat, but emblazoned with gold, it appears unique, with the only other Buddhas found with this form of crown being seated or standing images. But we found none quite as strange as the Disney-esque tigers flanking a set of stairs overlooked by snake heads imbedded in the rockfaces of Tham E-So.

The Tham E-So cave, named for the surrounding e-so trees, seemed de-serted of monks. Further investigation, however, revealed industrious monks busy at concrete mixers, on pulleys and dragging wet cement up hundreds of steps to a tattooed monk with a trowel and a cigarette, who in turn was carefully watched over by an octogenarian abbot. Major renovations and modernization were underway, with a set of steps heading towards the top of the mountain. Sitting 100 metres below our glorious view across the valley below lay Pon Chai, honking encouragement for us to get back to the car. The afternoon was ticking on and our driver needed extra searching time.

Stalking the Buddha trail in Trang is a lot of fun. We found wonderful statues and strange anomalies together with a fine assortment of monks excited to see visitors. Between sites we shared in-teresting conversation with Pon Chai, a single man with his eye on a particular girl. He had a ready laugh and enough English to get us through a funny day. My own grasp of Thai is basically as-sociated with the Buddha Trail words tham (cave), phra (lord or "reverend"), khao (mountain), which we practised over and over until I got them right.

For those seeking an unusual experience off the beaten track, first look for Pon Chai. He knows the way now. Two days later we ran into Pon Chai again, and he was still beaming and talking about the Buddha Trail. I'm sure he could cover the ground a lot quicker next time.