Trip to Upper Isan : Dec 26, 2009 - Jan 01, 2010 PART THREE
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
Part 3 Nakon Panom, Thai-Vietnamese Friendship Village (This Page)
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
PART THREE also has many pictures. Depending on your internet speed it may take a little longer than usual to load.
1. Nakon Panom downtown
We finally reached the town of Nakon Panom.
The town's oldest mainstreet was along the Mae Khong River. It was full of historical traces.
We saw beautiful Buddhist temples that could probably be traced back many hundred years when their construction had just started.
We saw a traditional Southern Chinese style shrine that was built by generations of the overseas Chinese and their offspring, who had settled down here in this town.
We were impressed with a very old Catholic church, St. Anna's Church Nong Saeng, which had a school within its huge premises.
All these places of different religions are on the same side of the street and are not far apart from one another.
2nd row: St. Anna's Church Nong Saeng. Built in 1926.
3rd row from left: a Buddhist temple, a Chinese shrine, a park by the river, an Immigration Office.
4th row: The way down the pier.
On this mainstreet facing MaeKhong River we saw the signs on various buildings : the Governor's Residence, the Judges' Residence, the Attorney's Residence, and dormitories for the teachers' and the police. It seemed the town's public servants all lived on this street!
At least two schools were here. They all had the classrooms facing Mae Khong River.
The blue and gray limestone mountains across the river were so beautiful! What a view!
How I envy those that can enjoy watching the sunrise every morning from their houses or classrooms!
This scenic view, however, must have been perceived differently during the Cold War!
Further down the street there were more and more buildings next to the Mae Khong River, some were tall.
They completely obstructed the river view from the mainstreet.
Among them one was the hotel that we stayed.
The view from the hotel, however, was wonderful:
Needless to say, the other side of the river is Laos.
In the photos, we see a telephone tower.
Although the pictures show only one tower there were in fact many.
These towers lined up on both sides of the river, and there were many telelphone lines linking all of them.
Lots of them ran above the Mae Khong River connecting Thailand and Laos.
Above and left:
Hotel views, with Ken on the verandah of one of our rooms.
Right:
Queen Sirikit National Library Nakon Panom Branch.
It was on another major street nearby, though not by Mae Khong River.
The building was designed by the French, who in the last two centuries were in Indochina.
The statue was King Rama V.
In the beginning this building was not used as a library.
Too bad the library was closed when we were there on December 30th, 2009.
See SLIDESHOW of all the pictures above at my photobucket.
2. Thai-Vietnamese Friendship Village, Baan Na-Chok
It did not take us long from the town center to the village of Baan Na-Chok where Ho Chi Minh had stayed while he was in Siam (Thailand).
Prior to this trip I only vaguely knew that there were Vietnamese that came to Thailand to seek asylum due to the wars they had back home.
I did not notice that their country had long been at war with various super-power of the time since the beginning of the 19th century or even earlier.
I have no intention to write a history paper or textbook so allow me to sum up in just a few sentences of what I have learned after this eye-opening trip to Baan Na-Chok.
In short, stronger countries "invaded" Vietnam and taxed the people heavily, so heavy that it was difficult for many of them to decently feed themselves and their families.
They therefore decided to come to Siam, where life seemed to be better off.
Some earliest Vietnamese asylum seekers were Catholic. They came here to avoid being persecuted by their anti-Christian leaders.
Visa and passport were rather new in the Thai history. I heard that before the year of 1932 (or the Buddhist year of 2475) the people could travel freely in and out of Thailand or Siam, and they could settle down on any uninhabited land at their will.
For them, there was no need at all to "imagine there's no countries..."
This is one of the reasons why we have Vietnamese-Thais, Chinese-Thais, and the Thais with their ancestors from Cambodia, Laos, Burma, India, Iran, and so on...
It also explains why there are many old Catholic churches in the eastern part of Upper Isan, where the distance from Vietnam is rather short.
The above is the garden of a museum at Thai Vietnamese Friendship Village, Baan Na-Chok, Nakon Panom.
As soon as we parked our car a man in the museum turned on soft Vietnamese music before he came to greet us.
He then showed us around the museum, which had many rooms exhibiting many, many interesting things.
Within the same premises there was a hall that had held the official opening ceremony in 2004 ( Buddhist Year of 2547).
In the garden there were the trees planted by the two PM.
Both trees were near the main hall that had held the ceremony.
Left: Inside the museum.
There were old things that were actually used by the Vietnamese people in the last century.
Ho Chi Minh's photos and biography were displayed everywhere.
There were pics of him in younger days, pics pf his parents, older sister and older brother.
A replica of Ho's room in Hanoi was upstairs in the museum.
We could also see replica of an old house in Vietnam where he lived as a child.
It was rather mind-boggling!
Below:
Left - Photos of the VIPs that attended the ceremony, and their words displayed in Thai and Vietnamese.
Right - Zoomed view of the Vietnamese PM with his words.
The meaning in English (my own informal translation):
"Allow me, in the name of the government and the people of Vietnam, to firmly assure you here in this land so significant in the history and so full of friendship, that we will follow President Ho's discourse to cooperate with the Thai people to forever nurture the friendship etween Vietnam -Thailand."
Ho Chi Minh's words and handwritings were displayed, too:
This was my very first time to read Ho Chi Minh's words.
Even in the translated English and Thai versions, the meanings were still powerfully conveyed: so full of missions for the sake of saving the nation.
During the Cold War era we on this part of the world were taught that the Communists were all very bad and the Viet Cong guerrilla were cruel. Now we no more think so but to me Ho's words still sounded (frighteningly) charismatic.
Just like Mao's in China.
Oh well....
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Click for the SLIDESHOW of the photos we took for this part.
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After this trip I did some research and
found good articles and photos about Thai-Vietnamese Friendship Village by Dr. Artha Nantachukra.
With his permission I included them HERE.
REMARKS:
The original webpage at www.rinac.msu.ac.th/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=22 has been removed but the article is saved at my site ( ArthaN4.htm) with the permission of Prof. Artha
Below is a screenshot of the beginning part :
Read more HERE.
Next : Ho Chi Minh's house ( Part 4 )
It was just a few steps from this museum to the house that Ho Chi Minh had stayed seventy-some years ago. But this would be too long if I included it here.
End of Part Three.
Comments ( from my MTP journal/item/379 )
