Side Trips

Every time we go somewhere here in Korat, it seems like we keep taking detours. Not that there's anything wrong with side trips. In fact I'd say the side trips are the real attraction.

I'm told the palm-like trees with the bamboo-like trunks (on the right) are so rare and difficult that they are worth $20k each. Next time maybe I'll get a picture of the whole trees.

On the trip from the airport to Korat, we stopped by a big Buddhist temple. I wish I could tell you which Wat I was speaking of, but even if Dang told me the name, I wouldn't be able to spell it properly. Perhaps I could come close phoeneticaly Buddhist temples are ubiquitous here in Thailand.

A garden walkway at the giant Buddha temple

This one was bigger than most. It apparently enjoys generous support from a popular actor from these parts. One of the outstanding features was the giant gold Buddha a couple stories tall. (Actually, I'm not sure if the Buddha on display wasn't actually an image of a more recent monk, but it doesn't really matter because a monk is trying to live like Buddha, so what's the distinction if they're really good at what they do?)

Another big feature at this Wat was the gardens. These were some particularly beautiful and well-manicured gardens, where I spent as much time as possible snapping photos before being shown to the temple.

The routine is pretty straightforward, as you approach the shrine there will be someone taking donations (equivalent to a dollar or two) for offerings (a few sticks of incense, a candle, a lotus bud (or rather something that looks like a lotus bud) or a little garland of real or fake flowers, and a little folded up piece of paper with some writing (a prayer perhaps?) on it containing a little square of gold leaf). When you get closer there's an area with a smaller replica (a few feet tall) of the main shrine to do a prayer and light the incense. After the prayer you can rub that piece of gold leaf (real gold folks -- not the fake stuff) onto the mini shrine. Don't rub too hard or it just sort of sublimates into the paper.

I never feel like I'm doing anything right -- because I'm not doing it right. One of these days I'll get it right and, no doubt, my life will finally fall into place and I will win a lottery jackpot or something. This time Dang prayed that we would be able to get a room at the resort and it worked! About the same time we were praying a reservation cancelled, allowing us to scoop up the room an hour later.

On our second day in Thailand my first priority was to get that WIFI aircard, but along the way to that shopping mall we stopped at the Shrine of "Lady Mo" or "Grandma" as Dang calls her. "Grandma" is sort of a patron saint of Dang's hometown of Korat (actually the town is named Nakorn Ratchismia which is why I'd rather just call it Korat like Dang). Lady Mo in real life had much to do with rallying the ladies of Korat and defeating an invading horde of bad guys who should have known better than to attempt to rape and pillage in these parts.

Dang applying some gold to Grandma's shrine

After paying respects to Grandma, Dang scores some lottery tickets.

After grabbing the WIFI aircard at the mall, we departed for Phnom Rung Historical Park on the Cambodian border where a 900-years old temple awaited. Dang stayed near all the vendors near the parking lot; too much walking involved to venture up to the ancient Hindu temple atop that extinct volcano. I did it in flip flops. Ouch.

One bad-ass cobra-dog guarding the steps.

I took lots of pictures, thankfully there were plaques with English descriptions of what I was looking at. These too I photographed and because of this and after the fact, I now have some understanding of what I saw.

If this guy had his weapon, that pigeon might show more respect

Then it was back into the rented Isuzu pickup truck for the two-hour return to Korat where I saw my first live water buffalo. Dang assures me I'll see plenty more. I always thought that water buffalo were just buffalo that tolerated mud, but they're more water friendly than I imagined. Kind of a mid-point between a buffalo and a hippo. They actually seek out the mud holes and hang out.

The backside of a water buffalo

That's about it for day two. Day three was spent updating this blog. More tomorrow; of that I'm sure.