North East Thailand

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Feb 10, 2008

Today we left Laos for Thailand via the Friendship Bridge. With the very good help of our Lao guide we were able to complete the paperwork for travel visas and entry documents in a relatively short time and were met on the other side in Thailand by our new guide for the next 4 days.

Our adventure in Thailand started with a visit to Wat Kaek, a Temple in the city, Nong Khai, you come to first when you cross from Laos. We visited the large temple complex that includes some very large ( up to 30 meters high ), and some bizarre, sculptures that were created by the same man who built the Buddha Park in Vientiane. This man left Laos when the revolution took place and continued his work in Thailand. The sculptures include a mix of Hindu and Buddhist works that are amazing. This is a very interesting place built on the Mekong River basically across from the Laos park.

We continued our journey with a very interesting few hours through the Thai countryside along the friendship Highway, that was sponsored by the USA, to the city of Khon Kaen. A good insight into the local economy with lots of rice farms and a few good sized factories in the towns and cities. We spent the night in Khon Kaen at the very nice Sofitel Raja Orchid Hotel.

Feb 11, 2008

Today we visited the important Phi Mai Khmer Temple that was built about 800 years ago and was the built at the edge of the Khmer territory and has direct links to the large temples we visited in Cambodia. There is an ancient ( almost straight ) road that goes from this temple to Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia with way stations every 15 KM or so. ( as far as they could travel in one day ). This is a very well restored site. We continued south on our way to Bangkok with a short visit to an archaeological dig that contains artifacts and burial sites from about 3500 years ago.

Our guide's mother and father were visiting his Grandmother in a small village near where we were so we went to visit their typical Thai home and enjoyed the tremendous hospitality of these wonderful people with some local food and a cold beer. The Grandmother lives on a small farm with several of her other children. They pretty much have everything they need off the land with a few pigs, chickens, Papaya trees, Banana, Vegetables and herbs, local sticky rice and fish from a pond on the property. We enjoyed our visit very much.
Spent the night in Nakhon Ratchasima.

Feb 12, 2008

Today we took a small trip off the main highway and visited a pottery village, another important Khmer Temple ( Prasat Hin Phanom Rung ), built on a large hill. We also visited a smaller temple site and the home of an ancient reservoir used by the Khmer for irrigation and drinking water.

Feb 13, 2008

Our journey continued today from Nakhon to Khao Yai National Park. This is a very large and important nature reserve in Thailand. On the way we visited a local winery and had a very nice lunch with some, surprisingly good, ( not what I would have expected ) local Siraz Wine.
In the afternoon we relaxed for a short time at the spectacular Kiri Maya Resort ( and Golf course) WOW!! This is a nice place. We wish we had a couple of days here. Beautiful resort built just outside the park in the mountains.
Later this afternoon we met up with our guide again and visited the National Park with a 1 ½ hour walk through the jungle ( all up hill !! ) with a local naturalist guide. Quite the walk for us old guys. We saw monkeys and some deer. Other parts of this park have wild elephants and bears and was home to some local tigers. This evening we took a ride in an open truck to view wildlife at night in the park. ( Deer, porcupine, wild dogs ). This is a very nice place and is very well managed and run by the locals.

Feb. 14, 2008

Today was a travel day to Bangkok and continuing on to Koh Samui and a week of relaxing at the beach. We left early and our guide was very kind to take us to the local IT City in Bangkok. 6 floors of everything IT. Crazy place. Bought a new laptop and an Ipod Nano. Continued to the airport for a short flight to Koh Samui, an Island south of Bangkok in the Gulf of Thailand.

Thanks Andy and Sunny

All in all a very interesting trip through northern Thailand with a very good and very professional guide and a very good and professional driver for our trip. Our thanks to guide Woraphon Phanno ( ANDY ) and driver SUNNY for a very enjoyable 4 days. They were both terrific.

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