Isaan (Khon Kaen)
Trip Start
Jan 12, 2010
1
39
58
Trip End
Dec 02, 2010
Khon Kaen, Thailand
Thursday, August 19, 2010
For me, the train is the best way to travel in Thailand. For one, it's a lot cheaper than the bus (though they're cheap enough) but also you get to see so much scenery you otherwise wouldn't get to see. Also, unlike the rules and regs in the west, it's perfectly acceptable to sit inbetween carriages on the boarding steps where you get the best views and the wind. 3rd class trains get hot, are always late and sometimes break down, but still, i always use the train if i can.
So Khon Kaen, like Udon Thani, this is another big city of Isaan. You have everything you could want from shopping malls to cinema (i watched SPLICE) to restaurants, but go just a short distance from the city and you have tiny villages made from wood and tin, rice paddys as far as the eye can see and mountains as well as other rural features that Isaan is best known for. Let's just say it doesn't take long to forget there's a big city a few miles that way.
One day i took the bike to a place called Nam Phong to see Phrathat Kham Kaen which is set within wat chetiyaphum. The story/legend/fable goes, a Khmer king assigned 9 senior monks to bring relics of buddha to be placed in Phrathat phanom. On the way, they set up camp for the night by the heartwood of a dead tamarind tree. The following day they continued to Nakhon phanom only to find that phrathat phanom had already been completed. Returning home via the same route with their relics in hand they found the once dead tamarind tree, was alive and lush. Convinced the area was sacred, they decided to build their phrathat here. Phrathat Kham Kaen means Stupa of tamarind heartwood.
Within the city is a place called Bueng Kaen Nakhon. It's a huge lake surrounded by a walkway that's lined with gardens , sculptues and relaxation areas. Many people come here both day and night and is a great place to chill with an ice-cream after a long day out. Especially watching the sun set over Nong Wang Muang Kao Temple.
Another place i went was Ku Thong or Ku puay noi which claims to be the largest Khmer santuary in the north-east region. Built 11th - 12th centry. It was 85km/55miles away which is a long haul (over 100miles there AND back) but it was well worth it. I like the old ruins and although i have seen many now, this was the first Khmer (Ancient Cambodian civilization) temple/ruin i have seen, though due to Isaan's close proximity to Cambodia (south and south/east Isaan actually boarder Cambodia) there are many Khmer ruins and buildings to see in this region.
Ubolrat Dam was another nice day out. About 50km/30miles from Khon Kaen this is a huge dam and is so big, it even generates electricity of 8 neighbouring provinces. It's a great place to relax and with reservoir-side resaurants, boat trips, parks, gardens and even a golf course, it's not hard to see why it's packed on the weekends. You can't walk around here without seeing a HUGE white buddha in the background. So after leaving the dam, i made my way here. No idea what the name of the temple was but it had many, many steps to walk up and had some great views of both the dam and the surrounding area. So well worth the short detour.
The last of the day trips was to Phu Wiang National park. It's about 85km/55miles away and there was so much to do here i woke up at 6am so i was ready to leave for 7am and get to the park by 9am. The big focus on this national park is that of Dinosaurs. In 1976 a uranium survey team discovered a fossil, which when annalysed by french specialists, turned out to be that of a dinosaur. That was the beginning of some big excavation projects which resulted in the finding of the full skeleton of a long necked, plant eating dinosaur as well as teeth belonging to a type of meat-eating dinosaur. Also dinosaur footprints and other fossils and bones have been found dating back to over 150 million years ago. There is even a museum at the park dedicated to the earth's origins, rocks, minerals, fossils and dinosaurs which after visiting, i left feeling i had some new found knowleadge which is the whole point to museums right? Although this national park has a dinosaur theme going, it's still a national park non the less, so as always, mountains, waterfalls, trekking and beautiful scenery were also in abundance. Due to time i couldn't see EVERYTHING in 1 day so chose to goto the biggest and most eye catching of the waterfalls, called Tat Fa falls. It was a really interesting day out and i got to see both amazing scenery and dinosaur relics. Also, although there are 9 dinosaur sites, they're not all within the grounds of the national park, and some are even in other provinces. The ones within the park are sites 1, 2, 3, 8 and 9.
There are other places i've visited including Nong Wang Muang Kao Temple (you got a "by day" and "by night" pic though) which, if you take the stairs to the top floor, has great views of the city and surrounding area, as well as some parks and lakes but not included them in the blog due to the sheer amount of time it takes to upload, sort out and write about everything. So just keeping to the main attractions here. Today i'm just having a chill day. Khon Kaen is a University city so has plenty of students who are always willing to practise their english on a farang. So i've made a few friends i'll be hanging out with later. Tomorrow i goto Maha Sarakham which is east of here.
