Mountains and Rivers

The VIP van with the family entourage eventually topped the mountain pass we'd been climbing and the walls of green on either side gave way to a momentary glimpse of the flatland on the other side. The plain was punctuated by smaller green bumps ahead veiled under a lake of steaming clouds into which we would soon descend. I spied a handful of brave bicyclists climbing the vista which we were now descending, it was still early so the traffic wasn't too bad and most of the trucks seemed to be heading in our direction anyway. I wondered what time they had begun their trip.

The descent seemed longer than the climb, but I think that is just an effect of the imagination. I tried to avoid paying attention to traffic coming from the opposite direction, especially whenever our driver was passing something which was pretty much a constant thing.

The clouds must have cooked off before we descended through them, and we were soon deposited at a huge temple with untold hundreds of people actively getting their prayer on. We purchased the incense, candles, lotus flowers and folded up paper containing the gold leaf. There was a mob of humanity crushed around the five incense lighting stations. The big pots of sand where the burning incense ends up were augmented with industrial vents and duct work above them to extract some of the smoke.

As the girls went into the shrine with all the gold Buddhas, I stayed back with Dang's brother who seems to have no interest in praying either. If I were to pray for anything that day, it would have been to not loose my connection to the entourage. After all, with no cell phone and no money in my pocket and miles from home in a land where hardly anyone speaks English, I'd better not loose the group. And this place was big.  There was warehouse sized space with shelves where the masses of humanity were leaving baskets of eggs as offerings.

I looked around for photo opportunities.

After checking out the giant temple next door, we crossed the street/highway to check out the open air market where Dang bought a bunch of things that I will never touch nor eat.

Then we went to the fancy restaurant on the river. The dining area was atop a floating pier protruding into the river. Flotillas of plants rafted past our table at swift walking pace as we were served up plates of prawns, crabs, fish and curry. I had fried fish and rice and helped Dang's brother drink the Heineken. I don't know how he did it because he maybe had an ounce or two of fish and nothing else the entire day, but he kept slamming down the beers the rest of the afternoon. Highlight of the dinner for me was when a 1/10 scale radio control airplane with pontoon landing gear buzzed the restaurant.

After lunch it was off to the temple with the big elephant. I finally understood what the "big elephant" was all about. This was a different sort of temple, almost a tourist trap, with huge covered parking areas for the cars and buses. The whole place had a less formal atmosphere, everything seemed to be painted bright colors and was new and shiny. There were still plenty of places where one had to take off one's shoes, little shrines with a golden Buddah or two, but I refused any further opportunities to remove my shoes and stood outside. Besides, this place was full of photo opportunities.

Then it was back into the VIP van for the long ride home. Once we finally arrived back in Korat, it took about two hours stuck in brutal traffic (Saturday night is apparently out-on-the-town night)  to get everyone returned to their respective starting places. Dang and I were the last ones to mercifully exit the VIP van at about 8 pm. I was toasted and would have vetoed any future road trips at that point. Better to just sleep on it.

The van driver had another driving gig that started at 2 am. I have nothing but sympathy for that dude.