#retirementtravel Archives • Page 31 of 49 • Folksy Travel by Bill Smale

June 8, 2022December 9, 2024

Mucking around in Mukdahan

Mukdahan is an interesting town on the Mekong river, a town I last visited last over 25 years ago. What really surprised me about the town is good food available of many nationalities. If you’re interested to know more about the town I’m including the Wikipedia link explaining everything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mukdahan

every town needs it modern tower. Why? I don’t know

Here at the Indochina market next to the river you can find a lot of stuff you might need. Not everything is inexpensive enough to justify shopping here instead at an inexpensive shopping center. But there are some good deals. Here you might want an umbrella

Lots of food available. Most of it seems to be sugar

Clothing occupies a large number of the stalls

If you need garlic I guess this is the place to come

And of course every “important” town needs to Bill a big Buddha on the hill. This one is still under construction

and here are some of the constructors having breakfast

Kwan Yin (KANNON) is a popular image

Every temple needs a temple dog. This one is very old, blind and has very long toenails probably from not moving around enough and wearing them down

banana leaves decorated to bring blessings

More popular banana leaf blessing decorations

This is something I don’t remember at temples, giant Naga. And it seems this is a popular thing to build now.

Someone has parked his tuk tuk on the street, maybe his parking lot?

This clock tower looks fairly new but I can’t say was one here before this was created. This seems to be an increasingly popular thing to build

And a Japanese restaurant with mixed reviews. I didn’t try it

June 5, 2022December 9, 2024

Serene Surin

Notice the black spots on his tongue. This is considered good luck in Thailand. There were a number of people who wanted to buy my dog because he had these black spots on his tongue and also six toes on each hind foot. This guy is a temple dog and was extremely friendly.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surin,_Thailand

If you’re interested in Surin use the link above to get more information.

This is how a nice pond looks after it’s gone through some cleaning

this is how it looks before it’s cleaned

The interesting thing about this area is it’s a mix of different cultures; Lao, Khmer (Cambodia) and Kuay. Quote from the museum: “This is the native population of Surin, Si Sa Ket, Buri Ram, Ubon Ratchathani and some parts of Maha Sarakham. They speak Mon-Khmer, and their physical appearance is very similar to the Semang. They have thick lips and curly hair. Some scholars believe that the Kuay are the same group as the people who speak Munda, who live in eastern India. During the Bangkok Period, when Surin was unable to meet Its tax demands from Bangkok, the administrators sent Kuay people as tribute. These Kuay have their own rituals and traditions. The best known is elephant capture, and the healing ceremony with its attendant rituals to cure the sick.”

This stick dance is similar to the one in Philippines

This shows the area where Khmer (bottom), Kuay and Lao (right) influences came in.

Life at the Sikhoraphum railway station, circa 1922

This kind of structure you often see in the middle of a Khmer temple. I’m not sure exactly what the use is

The Dvaravati Culture in Isan, or northeast Thailand, has its own identity that differs from that in the central and other parts of the country. One of the distinguishing characteristics is the concept in making large Buddhist boundary stones, which are not found anywhere else. These were made of large, flat, rectangular sandstone slabs, with tips shaped like a lotus petal. Some were carved with decorative designs,and others are plain. Most of the designs are relevant to Buddhism, such as the boundary stones from Fa Daed Sung Yang in Kalasin and Khonsawan of Chaiphum. The locations of the boundary stones varied, and were significant in different ways:

1. Some were located around ancient monuments, such as the boundary stones of Wat Dhammachaksemaram. Sungnoen district, Nakhon Ratchasima

2. Others delineated the rectangular space which might have symbolized the ordination hall for monks, such as the boundary stones of Muang Phai, Khornburi district, Nakhon Ratchasima

3. Some stones surrounded large mounds, such as the boundary stones at Ban Khonsawan. Khonsawan district, Chaiphum

In Surin. old manufacturing centers for Dvaravati boundary stones have been found at the ancient communities of Ban Trum.

Sikhoraphum district, and Noen Simma Yai. Non Simma Noi and Ban Plaikhla in Chumphonburi district.

Dvaravati culture in Isan declined in the 11th century.When the powerful ancient Khmer culture of Angkor spread through and began to dominate this part of Thailand. Sera stones at Ban True in Sikhoraphum district,Surin Province

Phanom Sawai Forest Park photos below

Every Buddhist image needs an elephant protector?

June 4, 2022December 9, 2024

Wats Galore!

At Wat Maha Wanaram it seems as though I walked in on a celebration so I just tiptoed and took a few photos. All of the temples in this phlog are in Ubon Rachatani, the Northeast part of Thailand, heavy with old Khmer (Cambodia) and Lao influences. The Northease is often called “Lao” since it was part of Lao until presented to Thailand by the French Colonialist authorities who governed Laos. It is a wonderful place to visit.

Wat Na Kwai

Wat Phra That Nong Bua

The Naga are there to protect the Temple

Even in front of sacred Ground lottery ticket vendors abound

Originally the Naga is a green river serpent. I will tell the story of the Naga as it relates to Buddhism in the near future

These temples are actually a great place to just sit and relax and, if you like, meditate

Wat Sa Prasan Suk

Wat Tai Phrachao Yai Ong Tue

The potpourri of temples

Don’t forget to sign the visitors book and also use the QR code to make a donation to the temple. This monk here was talking to himself

Is this the true depiction of a Heffalump?

I was excited how the clouds in the sky interacted with the objects

June 2, 2022December 9, 2024

On to Sisaket!

Yesterday in Surin this temple dog reminded me of lik lik because he came over and kept licking me

The dogs seemed to enjoy resting here by the Buddha at the top but when I went back down they followed me

You can tell by the name on the building what university this complex is. It looks pretty gaudy ornate. I would not want my house to look like this

Pretty tasty and reasonably priced. Chicken and some crispy something

This was advertised as something like a preserve for elephants but when I got there I found it was mostly a place for entertaining Thai tourist. In the next video you will see how they train these elephants to act like humans, something I really dislike completely but I bought the ticket so I thought I would sit there and watch.

When you see how these elephants are kept, chained and not able to move around, very sadly just weaving from side to side, you really wonder what a horrible life these animals have. I found it interesting what they have been trained to do but I just couldn’t stand to imagine how poorly they were treated so I left.

Tom Yam Gai (chicken). Very spicy and very hot.

the plate on the left shows you what really cannot be eaten but which adds flavor

Getting out of school to raid the sweets shop and the 7-Eleven carbohydrate shelves

I went to see the wooden bridge that crosses the river between the two provinces

I had to negotiate to get the price for locals. I am legally a resident of Thailand

Like many towers in Italy, many of the very old temple towers also lean

I told him where the leak in the tire was but he couldn’t find it so he decided to takeoff the wheel and dump the whole thing in water. But he didn’t know how to takeoff the wheel. He was using a hammer and crowbars to take something off the wrong way. so I kept looking at the tire and found a hole and after plugging the hole he put the bike back together.

June 2, 2022December 9, 2024

Fun in Buriram!

Buriram is a province in Thailand located in the Northeast near Laos and Cambodia. It has a mixture of Lao and Khmer (Cambodia) people, traditions and cultural influences.

You can see the province at the bottom of the image just above Cambodia

in addition to tradition, this province has probably the best known soccer team and soccer field.

Khmer influenced architecture. This looks like an abandoned temple

I am not sure what this is. Didn’t ET already return home?

in Kao Kradong volcanic crater and park.

The entrance to a temple from the main road

This robot delivers your food to your table. The only problem I saw is that it gets in the way of the waiters taking orders and talking with customers and seems to cause quite a few traffic jams. This doesn’t seem to be a really effective implementation of R2 D2.

May 31, 2022December 9, 2024

The last of the comics

it was a great idea visiting this temple and I hope that you get a chance to also spend a few hours to enjoy all of the images, but you have to travel to Bangkok

when you sit down quietly in front of these images I don’t see how you can be described as doing anything else except meditating.

May 26, 2022December 9, 2024

Meanwhile, back at the ranch (Koh Chang island)

Angelo has a Italian restaurant which now, due to lack of customers from Covid, focuses on pizza and PANZEROTTO. He is the kind of fellow you want to know if you want to learn how to be a good chef and how to make people happy with food. He makes something called PANZEROTTO, the only place on the island it’s available. If you really enjoy the food and tell him how much you like it he will most likely give you a complementary apéritif, possibly one you have never tried before. I recommend Trattoria & Pizza kohchang in Lonely Beach.