Our school was open on Tuesday, December 4th, closed on Wednesday, December 5th for the King's birthday, and then closed on December 6th and 7th because many of the students went to Chaiyaphum for academic and music competitions. So two wonderful teacher friends, Wachinee and Toom, invited us on a field trip on Thursday, the 6th. Wachinee picked us up at about 6:15 (sun just rising) and we were off on the 2-hour or so trip to Khong Chiam on the Mekong River south of Khemmarat.
Our first stop was Two-Color River -- the confluence of the brown Mekong River and the blue Mun River. It is remarkable for the different colors of the waters of the two rivers, but also for the beauty of the spot.
The Mekong is the water in the upper half of the photo above and the Mun is the water along the shore in the bottom half of the photo. The Mun and its blue water merge into the Mekong, which heads off at the top of the picture. The rocky islands with their trees at the merge point are an interesting feature.
Of course, there were butterflies.
And there was a slight traffic jam leaving Khong Chiam.
The next stop was Pha Taem National Park, a few miles back up the Mekong. It is a favorite spot of Thailand's Queen Sirikit.
The stone pillars or "mushroom rocks" were the first things we saw. According to a sign at the park, the top rock is sandstone from the Cretaceous period (about 130 million years old) and the trunk is sandstone from the Dinosaur period (about 180 million years old).
The name of the park means "cliff painting" and that's what it is famous for -- extensive rock art that is estimated to be 3,000-4,000 years old, stretching out more than 180 meters on the face of the cliff wall and containing more than 300 paintings, making it the world's largest group of cliff paintings.
At the top of the cliff, with the Mekong River below:
The view down the cliff face (scary!) to the tops of the trees below:
We saw small piles of rocks in a cliff cave -- they look like cairns marking a trail.
Looking up the face of the cliff from below:
Some of the cliff paintings, including some large fish, fish traps, and a turtle seen in the pictures below.
Then we hiked back up the cliff
and admired the Mekong as we climbed:
We headed back to Khong Chiam for a wonderful lunch at the Mekong Riverside Restaurant. Those aren't spots on the camera lens in the second picture below -- the restaurant ran water over the metal roof to cool the interior and it fell as drops from the roof edge.
Our first stop after lunch was Wat Tham Khuha Sawan.
The temple was built inside a cave in the Ayutthaya period (1350 to 1767). It was later upgraded to be the first royal temple in the province. Buddha images are enshrined along the wall with a large reclining Buddha image. The cave walls and entrance are full of initials of many kings and royal family members; Kings Rama V and Rama VII both visited the cave. A revered Buddhist monk, Luang Puu Khamkhaning Chullamani, made the temple his residence and place of meditation. He died in 1985 at the age of 91. It is said that his body would not burn and remains in perfect condition within the temple, where it can be viewed covered with gold. (See photo next to his biography below.)
Next stop, Wat Ban Na Muang, in the big city of Ubon Ratchathani. The entrance to the temple takes one beneath a large statue of Airavata (Thai: Erawan), the three-headed elephant that is the mount of Hindu god Indra.
This temple is notable for having both the Wiharn (the Sermon Hall in the Wat, which is often a busy building where worshippers perform religious rites at most times of the day) (first set of pictures below) and the Ubosot (the building in a Buddhist Wat that is the holiest prayer room, also called the "ordination hall" as it is where ordinations take place) (second set of pictures) built atop replicas of river barges. The Wiharn barge is painted concrete and represents a Naga barge. The Wiharn is situated in a small lake. There are catfish and turtles in the lake, and Wachinee and Toom bought some bread pieces to feed them. The Ubosot barge is a replica of the Suphannahong Royal Barge and is complete with rowers and covered in brown ceramics.
The final temple for the day was Wat Supattanaram Voravihan in downtown Ubon. Originally built in the mid-1800s, the main building, the Ubosot, was built in the early 1900s with a mixture of three styles: Thai on the roof, German architecture in the middle, and ancient Khmer on the lower level.
We saw a young monk taking down some of the decorations for the King's birthday the day before.
The final stop before dinner was Tung Sri Muang Park, a large public park in the heart of Ubon. One prominent feature in the park is the Chalerm Prakiat Candle, a huge candle made of cement. It stands 22 meters
tall and has a diameter of 1.40 meters. It was built to celebrate the 72nd
birthday of the King and was unveiled at a ceremony on
December 5, 1999.
Then we headed to the large City Mall in Ubon for dinner at MK Restaurant. There are a lot of MKs in Thailand and we had never tried one. There is a pot in the middle of the table and the diners cook their dinner in the pot -- a little too complicated for George. But Wachinee and Toom showed us how to order and cook the food, and the dinner was excellent. We also got to do a little shopping and got some almond butter! We haven't found any nut butters in the rural areas, so that was a treat. Wachinee was the chauffeur all day and then drove us 2 hours back to Khemmarat. We got home around 9:30. What a great day it was! Thank you, Toom and Wachinee!
Here's a virtual flower from Tung Sri Muang Park for you:
What a great description, George !!!!
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