Trip to Upper Isan : Dec 26, 2009 - Jan 01, 2010 PART SIX
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
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 Page)
On the Way Back
1. Udon Thani city
It was not dark yet when we reached Udon Thani. We found it a big city!
Photo source: http://www.bisnews.com/th/images/Udon/udon-VT1.jpg
(Click to see bigger pic.)
The restaurant looked more Chinese than its branch in our neighborhood in Bangna, Bangkok.
The food was, needless to say, good! I was particularly impressed with the FRESHNESS of their veggies.
After dinner we took a look at their production lines, which were next to the air-conditioned dining hall.
Their workers were busily grilling and packing nam nueng both for the restaurant and for nationwide delivery.
They have a good video on their homepage. The MENU looks good! http://www.vtnamnueng1997.com/
According to their website, the owners were a couple of Vietnamese refugees who had settled down in Nongkhai long ago. Their history (in Thai) is an interesting read.
In Aug 2019 I captured the screenshot from their new website:
It says: "V and T were the initials of the present owner's grandparents, who made a living selling nam nueng in Nong Khai... Now there are 15 branches of VT's across Thailand..."
Our trip to Upper Isan made me realize that we have a lot of Vietnamese-Thais, and that most of them are hard-working people, who have been integrated into the Thai society so well.
According to Thongchai Winichakul in his book "Siam Mapped: A history of the Geo-Body of a Nation," long ago – but not too long ago – there were wars between Siam and Vietnam, complicated with the (invading) French and etc., who came to this region in the days when colonialism was a trend.
We know wars usually make people migrate, whether willingly or unwillinglly, temporary or permanently. This explained why there were many "locals" in Isan with Vietnamese ancestors.
I did not know that this well-known successful Thai businesswoman, Mrs. Darunee, was a Vietnamese descendant. →
And, although I knew there were old Caltholic churches in downtown Bangkok, I had not thought of relating them to the early Vietnamese immigrants. I only knew that some old Chinese immigrants were Catholics. My first time to learn of the existence of "Little Saigon" in Bangkok city center!. See the screenshot of this article below.
That was quite a discovery for me!
Our trip continued...
We were lucky to have found a good but inexpensive hotel in the middle of Udon city on New Year's Eve.
At around midnight we could clearly see fireworks from our hotel rooms.
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!
On New Year's Day we checked out of the hotel and went to "The Pizza Company's" in "Central Plaza", a new big shopping center nearby:
Here is a website that has many good pictures of Central Plaza Udon Thani: www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=929854
The inside of the shopping center was almost like what we often see in Bangkok.
The streets outside were, however, less jammed than those in Bangkok.
2. The "Jurassic Park" – Shell Fossil Museum
The children were fast asleep and we had to wake them up when we came to a place by the highway that looked like a Jurassic Park entrance.
The formal name of the place is "Shell Fossil Museum"
According to Wikitravel,
"The museum features shell fossils from Jurassic Era, dating back to 140-150 million years ago. A number of bivalve fossils are found in good condition. These fossils are found in the mountain with 50 metres high cliff. In nearby area, 60 pieces of dinosaur fossils are found in the layer of siltstone, above the layer where fossils of shell, ancient crocodile and some minerals are found."
Pictures below:
Row 1 Left and Row 3 Right: In front of the display hall.
Row 2 From left: dinosaur bones, stalactite and fossils, stalactite, dinosaur teeth, dinosaur eggs.
Row 3: Three pictures on the left: dinosaur teeth.
There were fossil excavation sites but it would take time walking and exploring. Maybe next time...
3. King Naresuan Shrine
(in the "Jurassic Park"),
Nongbua Lampu Province
← Near the display hall of the museum there was a King Naresuan Shrine.
In the official website of the Province of Nongbua Lamphu, it says the shrine was built to commemorate King Naresuan.
REMARKS:
In Aug, 2019 the site of www.konnongbua.com does not exist anymore, but the internet search result of "Shell Fossil Museum (Nong Bua Lamphu)" shows lots of good articles and photos.
According to the writings of Prince Narisara Nuvativongse (King Rama IV's son), in the Buddhist year of 2117 (around A.D. 1574), when Prince Naresuan was 19 years old, his kingdom of Ayuddhaya was under the control of Burma. The Burmese King ordered him to lead the troops to help fighting at what is now Vientiane in Laos. However, the Prince became ill when he and his troops reached what is now Nongbua Lampu (where the shrine is located – said the people we met at the museum ). They therefore returned to Ayuddhaya without engaging in the battle.
The shrine itself was built not that long ago.
There were many rooster statues around the shrine, both big and small. I was told that these statues were placed there by different people after their wishes that they had made at this shrine came true.
4. Erawan Cave Temple, Nongbua Lampu Province
The next attraction that made us stop over was a cave high above the street level and was viewable from afar. There was a big Buddha statue inside. According to the road signs this was Erawan Cave Temple in the province of Nongbua Lampu.
Erawan = elephant. Tony took the photo of the hill with a Buddha statue in a cave. We did not stop the car so that was the best photo we had. I later zoomed it up and did some photo-editing.
← The "Stairs to Heaven" ("Bandai Sawan") were behind the three-headed white elephant.
The sun was almost setting so we did not bother to climb up.
By now the boys were too tired to do any sight-seeing.
Maybe the next time...
-----------------------
We headed for Loei, dropped off Min, said hello to her parents, exchanged gifts, and were on the way again.
The road back was smooth. We had thought of spending a night somewhere along the way, but it was only 8 pm (too early!) when we passed by Phu Rua. In addition, it was so crowded as if the place were a sunday market, although the temperature in Phu Rua was cool and nice.
We drove on along the winding and dark mountainous road. I remember seeing a crushed dead dog in the middle of the street and a living big rat with big eyes walking across it.... Nature! (Yikes...)
We finally arrived in the town of Petchaboon. Unfortunately Kosit Hill Resort was full, so was another major hotel in town. We had to move on....
On the way we saw a large fair on the other side of the highway. In a corner people were sending up large floating lanterns into the night sky. We parked the car and took some pictures and videos, but it was too dark and the result was not good.
I have found a video for you in case you have no idea what these lanterns are like: www.skylanterns.net
* REMARKS: This link does not work when I checked it in Aug 2019. But there are plenty of them if you google "sky lanterns".
It was 10pm when we reached the resort in Sritep that we had stayed (see Part One of this travelogue). But what a pity the last room of the resort had been taken less than an hour before we arrived. Oh well!
A precious lesson: during long vacations if we have not made any reservation beforehand we had better check in before 8 pm at the first decent hotel on the way. Otherwise we might have to travel all night!
On Jan-2-2010 at 3 or 4 am (I cannot remember the time ...) we finally reached home. It was a very LONG day for all of us. But guess what? The first thing the boys did after we were home was to turn on their computers!
Slideshows:
1. Shell Fossil Museum and King Naresuan Shrine (Jan-1-2010)
2. Erawan Cave Temple (Jan-1-2010)
The End
Comments ( from my MTP journal/item/382 )
