Phae Taem National Park. January 31, 2014

Friday, January 31st (Chinese New Year)

Got a bit of a late start, but it was only 35 km to San Phan Bok (or 3000 Holes'. Described as a rock formation on the Mekong resembling Swiss cheese and "you'll feel as much like you're visiting another planet as another country." by the Lonely Planet. Well, it was nice but not another planet. Sterlin was able to drive over the rocks, in a dry part of the river bed, which was pretty cool.

San n Phan Bok was a side trip; the main event for the day was Pha Taem National Park. We found an appropriate waypoint in our GPS and headed off as directed. We didn't actually check where we were going. As luck would have it, along the way we saw three Buddhas perched on a small mountain top, so turned off for a quick visit. Very impressive place, all this effort in the middle of nowhere. And again, not a monk to be seen. The onward road out of the village was blocked by a very large truck which was clearly not moving, but our trusty GPS showed us that we could get around the town, so we headed back the way we came to then continue further on that road. The 'by-pass' was pretty rough, high clearance and low-range required, but was only a few kilometers, so not to worry.

Well, the 'by-pass' rejoined the road, which turned out to be same dubious track we were on before. Now the waypoint was only 2.5 kms away; so we decided to venture on, bouncing along as we went. Another 2.5 kms and we found a walking track off to our waypoint, yet another 3.5 kms away. This was all getting a bit silly, but fortunately it was now only 9 kms along this track to the visitors' center and a sealed road, so we gritted our teeth and continued along the road foregoing the earlier selected waypoint. The track got a little tricky in places, but nothing Sterlin wasn't built for. This would have been a rather bad place to breakdown, specially since we hadn't seen any other 'traffic' on the dirt road and were clearly out here by ourselves. Eventually the track turned into something as we approached the visitors' center, which not only was closed but also completely empty. And there was no sealed road here either. The sealed road wasn't far away, we could see it on our GPS and at the bottom of the cliffs! After a little sight-seeing, talking to the ranger who didn't speak English, and, considering our options at that time of day (it was late afternoon) and quantity of food, we realized that it was better to stay the night than try and get back along the dirt road and then some. We hadn't planned on camping, and we were a little disorganized, but we setup camp and made the best of it. There was no one else around, so we had the entire campground to ourselves. Dinner was a pot of yogurt and two breakfast bars each.

Turned out our campground was located at Cha Na Dai Cliff which is the most easterly point in Thailand and, consequently, is the first place in Thailand that sees the sunrise. So we set the alarm for 5:30am and made great plans to get up and be the first people in Thailand to see the sunrise.

Cruising 3000 Holes

Look what we stumbled across in the middle of nowhere.

Caroline getting a little arty with this photo

Beautiful and Lonely

Road to Cha Na Dia Cliffs. NOt so good in places.

Cliff-top view point.

Our unplanned home for the night.

Saturday, February 1st

Alarm went off. And after some humming and harring we did eventually drag ourselves out of bed and walked 15 minutes to the sunrise viewing point. It was worth it, as we were greeted with a lovely sunrise. The other benefit was that we were in the car and heading back by 7:30am, very early for us.

Waiting for the sunrise

And there is the actual sunrise. 6:28am.

Selfie!

That Phonom and Khemmarat. January 30, 2014

Thursday, January 30th

Our hotel was very noisy. Other guests ('locals') arriving back late and making lots of noise - for hours. So, off to find "Good Morning Vietnam Cafe" for a much needed coffee. 

As we headed south we were not sure where we would finish the day, but we wanted to be within striking distance of the "3000 Holes" for tomorrow. Unfortunately the road did not follow the Mekong so we did not have the river views. Instead we had country views and everywhere we drove farmers were drying some sort of chipped root on the edge of the road. No idea what the root was however.

(1) We use the Lonely Planet as our 'guide book' for accommodation, sites, restaurants (along with internet, eg Tripadvisor, and travelers' recommendations) and we don't always agree with it to say the least. So when I read their write-up on Wat Phra That Phanom, I was a tad skeptical, to say the least. But what do you know: I was blown away with it - and I believe so was Stephen. The temple complex was quite compact and filled with gleaming white and gold buildings and statues.
So for this 'Wat' The Lonely Planet got it totally right, "This temple is a potent and beautiful place; even if you're feeling templed-out, you'll likely be impressed".

Wat Phra That Phonom detail.

Maybe the World's Largest Gong?

The 53.6m 'Taht' at Wat Phra That Phanom.

As we'd skipped breakfast we stopped for lunch at Mukdahan. Another town very similar to Nahkon Phnom with streets and streets full of little of shops. Also a large market located near the river bank. Lunch was nice and we chatted to a nice couple living locally, Marco and Jo. Marco is originally from Switzerland and has chosen Thailand as his final home. 

We continued south with an eye open for lodgings. Lonely Planet told us that there is no accommodation in this neck of the woods. We found a very nice place at Khemmarat to hang our hat for the night. We sipped beers looking over the river as the sun set behind us. The hotel was empty, so that night we slept well.

Reading, drinking and enjoying the Mekong

Some kind of chipped root drying on the side of the road (2)

(1) by Caroline.

(2) We think we've found it: Cassava root. We did hear about tapioca plants and we did notice a fermented, vinegary smell.

Nakhon Phanom. January 29, 2014

Wednesday, January 29th

Got up early, well early for us. Grabbed a coffee before heading in the direction of Wat Phu Tok. Along the way we stopped at Tesco for supplies, and where lucky enough to find booster cables. Hope never to use them. 

One of many Buddha's along the way.

Wat Phu Tok was very cool. A temple set atop a small mountain with these rickety wooden walkways just hanging off the cliff face. For those old enough to know the computer game Myst, it was all very Myst like. Reminded us of the Meteora in Greece. We spent hours walking around the mountain enjoying the place. And like other recent temples, we did not see any monks during our visit. In fact there were very few visitors as well.

You can see the walkways snaking around the hill.

On the way to Nakhon Phanom we made another detour to see the confluence of the green coloured Mae Mam Songkhram River with the muddy brown coloured Mekong. And it was quite a detour. We travelled over mud and potholed roads for about 30 kms before we got to the confluence. There was a better route via the highway, but it was nice seeing all the little villages situated along the Mekong. Sterling will need a clean soon.

If you look carefully you can actually see the green and brown waters merge.... ish.

Nakhon Phanom is the capital of the province, and is quite bustling. The town is decorating and getting ready for Chinese New Year. Caroline had Mekong River fish for dinner. 

Bueng Kan. January 28, 2014.

Tuesday, January 28th

We almost stayed a second day in Nong Khai, but common sense prevailed and we continued our journey East. If Sterlin had failed to start, I think we would have stayed, but fortunately he fired up just fine. For a third straight day we had good roads, but started to lose the beautiful views of the Mekong river. The plan was to stop somewhere near Wat Phu Tok, which is our objective for Wednesday morning. We ended up in Bueng Kan.

And what a delightful little place this is. Located on the river bank with a slow pace of life, no tour buses and very few western tourists. In fact we only saw two westerners the entire time we were here. We went for a long walk along the sandy riverbank and just enjoyed the peace and quiet and later the sunset. At night the restaurants placed tables along the embarcadero and the locals and Asian tourists came out to feed. Not surprisingly, Caroline had river fish for dinner.

Lovely stroll around the dried up river bank.

Farming on the river bank. Which will all be washed away
when the river rises in the wet season.

Makeshift restaurants on the river bank.

Spices for dinner. Comes in Very Hot,
Extremely Hot and Fireball.

Caroline sitting down on Walking Sreet

Nong Khai. January 27, 2014

Monday, January 27th

After our morning coffee we headed to Sangkhom some 120 kms East. The view of the river from the road continued to be spectacular. And we made very good time on the excellent road. After reaching Sangkhom for lunch and seeing that there was not much to this little town, we decided to push on to Nong Khai, another 60 kms or so down the road. Along the way stopped at Si Chiangmai and two temples. Si Chiangmai is a border town on the opposite bank to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Vientiane is just across the river. All going to plan we will be on the other side of the river in about two and a half months after completing our journey south through Thailand and then heading north again up through Cambodia and Laos to a place maybe 400 meters from where we stand now.

The first temple we stopped at was Wat Hin Mak Peng which is a vast forest temple respected as the founding abbot is said to have reached enlightenment. The temple has a beautiful perch on rocks hanging over the Mekong River. All quite nice really. When we visited this huge complex, it was completely deserted. Not sure where all the monks were.

The second temple stop was at Phra That Bang Puhan, which (apparently) is one of the regions most sacred temples. Here we found many monks, young and old, wandering around or sweeping up leaves. The Chedi was impressive, but much of the rest of the complex was a bit run-down. At this second stop, Sterlin also decided to stop. And just like 6 days earlier, refused to start after losing all electrical power. Popped the hood and fiddled with the battery for a few minutes before things starts working again, cause unknown. Very concerning and we did not stop the engine until we got to our hotel.

Once at the hotel and with the help of the Internet the likely cause of this issue was determined, well at least a theory was emerging. 7 days ago I disconnected the engine battery, just as a precaution, while I re-routed the power cable for the GPS unit. And at this time I suspect I did not reconnect the battery leads sufficiently well and this is now causing the failed starts. The battery leads supplied by Land Rover are particularly difficult to atttach correctly to the terminals of batteries made in the US. I know, sounds silly, but believe me when I say they are hard to connect "just right". Probably an empirical vs metric thing. So in the parking lot of our hotel and with quite a few other hotel guests offering opinions, I tightened everything up, this time correctly. Time will tell if this is indeed the issue. If not we have much bigger issues on our hands. And ironically, just on the over side of the Mekong is Vientiane (capital of Laos) which has Laos only Land Rover dealer and repair shop. We did consider crossing the border just to have them check everything out.

We had a lovely dinner on a river boat which was on the Mekong. Caroline had river fish, very appropriate and very yummy. We found the local bar full of foreigners to finish the evening.

Wat Hin Mak Peng

Phra That Bang Puhan

Resting after a very spicy lunch. My face is actually red.

Vientiane, Capitol of Laos, behind us. 

River boats.

Caroline enjoying the view.

Chiang Khan and The Mekong River. January 26-27, 2014.

Sunday, January 26th (Australia Day)

Before driving out of Phitsanulok we made a quick detour via the Starbucks in the shopping Plaza - everynow and then it's nice to be able to simply order a 'grande non fat latte' and knowing that's exactly what you'll get :) (the right coffee-to-milk ratio and no sugar or condensed milk).

They really are working on their roads here in Thailand: stretches of the days' drive were along roadworks, but nothing really disruptive to travel times. Upon reaching Loei we got the feeling that is was an expanding but rather non-descript big town, so we decided to continue a little further to Chiang Khan, which is situated on the banks of the Mekong River, or Mae Khong as it is called here.

Chiang Khan turned out to be a small, still quaint - but by the looks of the new guesthouses and on-going construction, fast growing town totally gearing itself towards tourism. We found a brand spanking new hotel (with parking), checked in and armed with the camera went through a little alley to go and see the Mae Khong. It was the hour before sunset.

And this was another one of the 'wow' moments. Seeing the Mekong River for the longest time was a wish, something to dream of (for me, Caroline). And there I was: on its banks, enjoying the sunset over the river, while seeing Laos on the other side!

After sunset while strolling down the cute main street in search for food we came a cross a group of entrepreneurial kids, making a baht out of the tourists.

Monday, January 27

My 6am alarm went off and 15mins later I sneaked out the door (didn't want to wake Stephen) towards the River. The sun was yet to rise and I was able to witness one of the morning rituals (very common throughout Thailand): the buddhist monks leave the temples early in the morning, walk the street and are given food (or other offerings).

And then it was time for the 'pièce de résistance': sunrise over the Mighty Mekong. And it did not disappoint. Especially since I had the spot at the bottom of some steps and right on the water all to myself. The water was calm, the fish were jumping, and a thin low layer of mist was rising on the far side of the river as the sun came up. Magic. Pure Magic.

Walking back along the main street the town and locals were slowly waking up, getting ready for the day.

Breakfast before work.

Food stall.

Breakfast preparation.

Phitsanulok. January 25, 2014.

Saturday, January 25th

We continued South in the direction of Phitsanulok. Along the way we had the good fortune to pass by Si Satchanalai Historical Park which is one of the "Associated Historic Towns" of the UNESCO World Heritage site "Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns". And the visit did not disappoint. We spent a few good hours wandering around the ruins and trying to imagine how life was here centuries ago.

Pithsanulok was ok. We went for a late afternoon walk and managed to squeeze in 2 temples and a rather nice sunset over the River Nan before finding food and the night markets. We did not have a great map of the town, and spent more time wandering around than we probably needed to, but it was good to explore.

One of the temples we visited was Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat or Wat Yai and it is famous in Thailand as it holds " the most beautiful Buddha portrait in Thailand". Very crowded place as it is a site that's apparently on the tour buses full of french people's route.

We enjoyed our time here and took quite some photos to remember it all by.

Wat Chang Iom

Offerings at the Wat

Caroline climbing 144 steps to one of the Temples.

At the end of the hike up the steps.

One of the many Buddha images.

Sterlin enjoying the Historical Park

Phra

Phra again.

Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat or Wat Yai