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Travel Blog November 2005 Page 4
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In November 2005 we set off on a trip starting in Western Australia covering Brunei, Sabah in Malaysia, Thailand & a brief visit to Cambodia. Whilst away we maintained a Blog for the world to see. Following is a cleaned up version of that original Blog - spell checked and with some trip photos included!
Monkeying about in Kosum Phisai !!!
Thursday, November 17, 2005
Kosum Phisai, half way between Khon Kaen and MahaSarakham gets few western visitors yet is one of the best monkey sanctuary's in the country. Home to countless monkeys there are no cages or bars, just monkeys everywhere in the jungle and lounging around the nearby riverside.
When we visited the place was cordoned off by the police as a local film crew was filming a Thai Kung Fu epic inside. After some sweet talking we got in and spent an hour with the irrepressibly cheeky monkeys.
Walk into the jungle and dozens of monkeys swing overhead. Great fun and good to see the monkeys in their natural habitat.
As a bonus we got to watch the film crew working on their mocked up Khmer ruins which kept both us and the monkeys entertained.
The monkeys are renowned thieves and it would be interesting to know how much of the film crews' gear was missing by the end of the day.
PS - local legend has it that a monk who killed one of the monkeys later died - hence the monkeys are believed to have god like qualities. Treat the monkeys with kindness is the tip, even if one of them steals your sunglasses.
Better still, keep a close eye on your stuff.
Beauty Contest Winners
Mahasarakham Province Thailand
En route to a visit to the village of Ban Song Bleu we stopped off in Mahasarakham town to pay a visit to the markets to pick up some fruit.
Mahasarakham is a small city, capital of the province of the same name, and an education centre for the region. Its orderly streets are home to numerous schools and colleges with a few interesting temples scattered about town.
There are several hotels in town although very few foreigners visit here and the town is largely ignored by the major guidebooks on the market. As a result this is a pleasant town yet to be spoiled by hordes of backpackers.
A canal runs down the man street and there is plenty of activity with countless lorries (converted to songthaews, or public buses) connecting the town with outlying villages.
The fruit market was packed with culinary wonders and we left with bags of oranges, jackfruit, papaya and so on having spent less than $4.
Village Beauties
We dropped into the rice farming village of Ban Song Bleu to share our load of fresh fruit and have a few drinks with the villagers. The village is about 3 km off the main road and, as with most farming villages in this region, consists of large solid homes on stilts - the lower area is a communal cooking, eating and living place and upstairs contains the bedrooms.
There are small stores in the villages and chickens, dogs and children run about, all bursting with curiosity to see foreign visitors.
The village is surrounded by the farmer's plots of land, where glutinous rice is the main crop. 2005 has seen good rains in north eastern Thailand and this years crops are good.
By chance we learn that a beauty contest is to be held in a nearby village to celebrate the upcoming Loy Krathong festival and we head there in the evening. Two girls from Ban Song Bleu are entered so expectations are high.
The farmer's daughters by now have been transformed into beauty queens and we wander the temple grounds which is hosting a fair and a large stage for music performances and the contest proceedings.
As luck would have it the two girls from Ban Song Bleu take first and third places in the contest, winning 5000 and 2000 baht
respectively.
As we leave the fair the rice whisky is flowing copiously and the village drinkers are beginning to curl up in drunken balls around the grounds!
Phra Maha JD Chai Mongkol, Roi Et Province
Exploring Roi Et by car
Friday, November 18, 2005
The drive to Roi Et town was an interesting one, dodging buffaloes and cyclists at high speed, but we got into town and headed immediately for the Town "Aquarium", a small version of the "Underwater World" kind of places where you walk through tunnels and watch fish swim overhead.
Roi Et Aquarium is small but it is air conditioned and free. There are lots of local fish on display and the place is packed with kids.
Then we talk a walk around the adjacent Bung Planchai, Roi Et's famous and picturesque lake. Alive with people wandering the shaded paths around the lake, and packed with catfish eager to eat your 10 baht bag of fish food.
After that we headed to the outskirts of town for drinks and lunch. For 6 meals of Pat Kapow (minced pork with chilli, vegetables and onion on rice) plus drinks the grand total was 140 baht !
After lunch we visited a temple in town with an enormous standing Buddha image. This temple was quite bizarre - they also have a giant gong, a tunnel dug into an ancient tree's roots containing a reclining buddha and many many young novice monks.
An interesting spot and the nearby temple is well worth a look.
We were directed by someone in town to visit a "great" waterfall 40 km out of town. We never found the waterfall but 80 km later we
spied a giant chedi rising up from the mountains so we turned left and drove towards it.
We had stumbled upon Phra Maha JD Chai Mongkol, an enormous chedi surrounded by a massive grounds on a scale far greater than sites like the grand palace in Bangkok.
Surrounded by a kind of mini "great wall of China" which you can walk along to enjoy the great views across the countryside, this complex is still under construction and maybe 30% of the site is still unpainted concrete.
What is already complete is so breathtaking and on such an enormous scale that this site is bound to become a major attraction in years to come. Already tour bus loads of Thai visitors are pouring in regularly.
We climbed the 4 torturous levels of steep steps to reach the pavilion half way up the chedi. The views from here are magnificent and the mountain top breezes make the climb up worthwhile.
We stayed for sunset and watched the manicured grounds and massive white and gold spires change colors with the setting sun.
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