Trip to Upper Isan : Dec 26, 2009 - Jan 01, 2010 PART TWO
I rearranged the codes in Aug 2019.
This was a trip of more than 2000 km by car to Upper Isan (the NE part of Thailand). I divided it to six parts as follows:
Part 1 From Bangkok to Loei
Part 2 From Loei to Nakon Panom (This Page)
Part 3 Nakon Panom, Thai-Vietnamese Friendship Village
Part 4 Ho Chi Minh's house in Baan Na-Chok
Part 5 The Temples, the Churches, the Food, the People
Part 6 On the way Back
This was our first trip to Nakon Panom. We had long known that Nakon Panom had many "pratat" or Khmer-style square-base stupas that kept Buddha or a saint's remains that were "usually of a kind of pearl or crystal-like bead-shaped objects that are purportedly found among the cremated ashes of Buddhist spiritual masters"....
More about the saintly bead-shaped remains: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarira
Pratat Panom (see pictures on the right) is one of the most famous pratat.
"According to legend, this structure contains The Buddha's breast bone, and as such, it is one of the most important Theravada Buddhist structures in the region."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Phra_That_Phanom)
Enough of the copy-paste....
Apart from Pratat, we had also learned from the media that one of our MP, an ex-PM, and a retired general, Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, had always been associated with Nakon Panom Province.
I have to confess that prior to this trip I was not able to correctly point out the location of Nakon Panom on the map of Thailand!
Our friends in Loei told us they had lived in Nakon Panom for many years before moving to Loei. Due to the nature of their work they knew that part of the country very well.
We were advised that the shortest route from Loei to Nakon Panom via Udon and Sakon Nakon might not necessarily be the fastest. This is due to heavy traffic, they said. On the other hand, traffic on the road along Mae Khong River, though longer in distance, would be more relaxing as there were fewer cars and trucks, and could be faster for us to reach Nakon Panom.
The owner of Baan Fah-Dao resort, however, gave us a different opinion. She was also from Nakon Panom. She said if we took the winding road it would be a few more hundred kilometers longer, and the condition of the road was not always good as it was along Mae Khong River, which, in the past used to be the "Communist's" territory.
The shortest route:
Loei →
Nongbua Lampu →
Udon Thani →
Sakon Nakon →
Nakon Panom :
The more pleasant route but longer in distance:
Loei →
Nongkhai →
Nakon Panom :
We combined both suggestions.
Our route was: Loei → Nongbua Lampu → Udon Thani → going up north to the path along Mae Khong River in Nongkhai → Nakon Panom.
And for the way back: Nakon Panom → Sakon Nakon → Udon Thani → Nongbua Lampu → Loei → → Bangkok.
The entire distance was more than 2,000 kilometers (or 1,250 miles).
Remarks added in August 2019: A few months after we visited Nongkhai the eastern part of it became a new province with the name Bueng Kan. Nongkhai in the map above is therefore bigger than what Nongkhai today is.
When we were in the town of Na Klang we saw a long parade promoting "safe driving during the new year holidays". These people were civil servants, teachers, students, policemen and policewomen, volunteers... They walked leisurely. I noticed some females were in their high heels. I hope they did not have to walk very far!
"Na Klang" literally means "in the middle of paddy fields", but I did not see paddy fields on its mainstreet. We passed by some schools and saw that it was their sports day today, but not a holiday.
Obviously in this country, Dec 29th is a holiday amongst a rather long year-end break only for the very few Christian schools (including my sons').
Upon entering the province of Udon Thani the road became mountainous but it was still four-lane.
And our friends had been right: there were more cars and trucks, making it rather difficult to go at the speed that we wanted.
At a big crossroad we decided to turn left and headed north for Nongkhai.
This has become a big annual festival of the area that attracts lots and lots of the tourists.
Fortunately this year's annual festival was over many weeks ago so it was fairly easy for us to park our car near the river.
The river-side market has this big sign below:
The Naga Fire Balls could be seen along the Mae Khong River not just in Ponpisai, but also in
Rattanawapi,
Pak Khat, and
Bueng Kan.
Maps below from left: Rattanawapi, Pak Khat, Bueng Kan.
REMARKS:
The maps on the left were re-added in August 2019, when Pak Khat and Bueng Kan became the districts in Bueng Kan Province,
which is to the east of (the now smaller) Nong Khai Province.
Below: More info on the legend of the Naga Fire Balls.
REMARKS:
The screenshots above were from the site that does not exist anymore.
"Served the Nation in the past. Now serving the farmers."
It sounded very cool but at the same time it reminded me of the decades-long tension between the anti-Communist Thai gov and the locals. The "fearful" Communists might have easily crossed the river and inflitrate the region!
All of a sudden I felt that Mae Khong River was too narrow!
Thank goodness such threat or fear is no more.
The road from Ponpisai to Bueng Kan was not next to the river bank but we could see many limestone mountains on the Lao side in the distance in different shades of blue. A few of them looked very tall. The landscape on the Thai side was, on the other hand, rather flat.
When we were near Bueng Kan I noticed a few place names with the word "Hong" or "A Hong". For examples, Hong village, Hong River, A-Hong Bridge, etc. The word sounded very Chinese.
At a turn we were AMAZED at many huge black rocks by the river bank on our side. See the pictures below. The inscription on the rock at the entrance indicated that it was a temple ("wat") that had rocks ("sila") I am not sure what "wad" or "waas" means.
We drove through the gate and saw more rocks. It was as if some alien had dropped them here in the ancient time.
Left and bottom-left above: The rocks on the Lao side.
From where we stood they looked smaller than ours.
Excellent pictures and introduction to A-Hong Silawas Temple that I found on the internet:
http://www.212cafe.com/freewebboard/view.php?user=tsbk&id=171
* ** REMARKS added in August 2019: The webpage above does not exist anymore.
It is better to GOOGLE for the images of "A-Hong Silawas Temple".
In 2019 I found a good review by Pop P copied below:
the temple itself has nothing much to talk about, but its location being by the bank of the river where it is believed to be the deepest spot of the mighty Mekhong is remarkable. Besides, the nearby rock park where there are several red and sand rock formations emerging from the ground of a well maintained and decorated park is stunning. (https://www.thingstodopost.com/top-10-things-to-do-in-nong-khai-thailand-125760)
It did not take us long to reach the next interesting stop: a big sign near a "border checkpoint" by the river.
This is a (temporary?) border checkpoint in a "hut" by the Mae Khong River at Baan Don-Paeng.
The green stall in the hut sat an officer in the military outfit. The river in the back is Mae Khong River. We saw some people coming from the ships but the officer did not bother to check anything. Maybe he did but we did not notice.
A picture here shows one of the "shops" near the checkpoint.
Interesting thing is the town that looked very modern – with all kinds of shops on both sides of the paved streets, etc., – was just a few minutes' drive from this point.
The entrance to the town was so exotic:
Welcome sign enlarged:
SLIDESHOW of the pictures in Part Two.
I am going to end this part here.
The next part will be about Nakon Panom, including our trip to a house in a village called Baan Na chok, where Ho Chi Minh, the Vietnamese leader, had stayed more than half a century ago.
End of Part Two.
Comments ( from my MTP journal/item/378 )
