Photos by MJ Klein, Hui-chen and others as indicated.
We took our rented car out of Khonkaen and down to the village of Sabua in Muang Phon. As you can see, it was barely large enough for me to sit in.
But before we left for the village, we stopped by one of the most famous temples in Khonkaen to take a look. There was some kind of a ceremony going on, so we didn’t stick around for very long.
These photos are all geotagged, so clicking on each photo will open it’s Flickr page and you have the option of looking at a map to see where we were when we took the photo.
Puey Noi
On the way we stopped at a very nice archeological site: Puey Noi (often spelled different ways). We’ve been here before. Please see the original article for more information.
Here are the obligatory photos of Hui-chen and I standing in front of the sign. Clicking on any of these photos will take you to Flickr, where you may view the many other photos we took of this site that aren’t shown here. We took way too many to be shown on the blog.
Compare this photo of the sign, with the photo we took 5 years ago (below).
At least you can still read this one. The sign has deteriorated quite a bit in 5 years.
This is another information sign. This one wasn’t there 5 years ago.
And this is the site itself. The main “gopura” or gate.
It’s a beautiful, fascinating site with many interesting features.
This is a shot taken from inside, of the main “parang” and the “dependent parangs” to either side.
Here I am pointing out the detailed wall carving. We were all very impressed with the level of workmanship evidenced in the stone carving.
This is a carving that this site is famous for – The Sleeping Vishnu.
Inside one of the parangs, I found this stone relief. Someone has been making offerings, using this as an altar.
These were stone window bars. After the top stone was placed, it held the bar stones in place because of the fittings below and above, as shown here (lower fitting shown).
The entire site is surrounded by a laterite wall.
Michael Turton snapped this photo of me coming through a doorway.
A final overview shot. Lovely!
Also on the grounds is a new temple.
And across the street is a lovely lake.
This shot was taken from the same place as the previous shot, but using my 200mm Sigma zoom.
Always present in Thailand, these ants were busy doing what ants do.
Muang Phon
After we were finished at Puey Noi, we drove down to Muang Phon, and went to the market in the main town.
Everybody loves a good market, and this one is great!
This market is so well organized, and this is only a small section of it.
We brought fresh vegetables and meat for our evening meal at the resort.
Just look at this fresh produce! You really should click on this photo and view the large size!
Sabua Village, and Sabua Resort
Of course, we had to buy some Isaan style sausages! These are the only food photos we’re going to show you in a regular article, so enjoy them!
Uncle had the grill going and he was taking care of the sausage business for us.
My good friend Ben, the owner of the Sabua Resort, was there to welcome us. We sat down for some drinks together. Here you see Michael Cannon (R) joining us for some Sang Som.
You just would not believe how good these really are.
This is the entire spread: Sang Som Royal Thai rum, grapes and Issan sausage. In the basket was sticky rice.
Auntie butchered a chicken and picked fresh herbs for our dinner. You’ll get to see the meal in another article.
After our snack, we took a walk in the village. Here we saw some of the village women who were weaving silk. This is a hand-powered silk weave loom.
Here, you can see her operating the loom by hand. That complex pattern in the silk material is done entirely by hand, and by memory!
By this time, all the cows were coming home from being in the grazing fields all day.
This herdsman uses a motorcycle to herd his cattle.
Michael Turton and I take a walk down a village road in the setting sun. It was a beautiful time of day.
Here is a shot of Auntie preparing our dinner!
Later we met our good friend Mr. Somkhit, and he took us out for drinks and karaoke in town.
Here he is with his wife. These shots were taken in near darkness, with our optically stabilized lens.
Michael Cannon (L), Hui-chen and Michael Turton, enjoying the singing of the local people.
It was a party atmosphere, to say the least! These girls were singing and dancing through many of the songs.
After even more food and drinks, it was time to call it a day.
Thanks for reading! Please leave us your comments and recommendations below. If you liked this article, please feel free to re-tweet it!
Articles in series 2010 Thai/Laos Trip:
- 2010 Thailand-Laos Trip
- Day 1, Arrival in Thailand
- 2010 Thai-Lao Trip, Day 2
- Day 3 & 4, Traveling to Laos
- Day 5, Vang Vieng
- Day 6, The Elephant Tower Of Ban Na
- The Plain of Jars, Sites 3 & 2
- The Plain of Jars, Site 1
- Day 8 Sites of Interest
- Visit To A Lao Village
- Back to Thailand
- Last Day In Thailand
- Thai-Lao Trip Food: Day 1
- Thai-Lao Trip Food: Day 2
- Thai-Lao Trip Food: Day 4
- Thai-Lao Trip Food: The Next Few Days
- 2010 Thai-Lao Trip Food: The End
Definitely a good time. Those issan sausages are much better than Chinese sausages — how could people be around 5K years and invent only 1 kind of sausage? It boggles the imagination. I really enjoyed the ruined temple as well, and that market was awesome. Great pics, and a great trip!
.-= Michael Turton´s last blog ..China guts Taiwan’s industries =-.
Michael, interesting observation about the Chinese sausages. well i suppose that if you like them you don’t need anything else. personally i prefer the Isaan ones myself.
it was a trip of epic proportions to put it mildly! thanks MT.
Looking like a great time was had. I’m eager for the next part.
.-= Craig Ferguson (@cfimages)´s last blog ..Workshops =-.
thanks Craig. we’re looking forward to bringing the rest of this series to our readers.
Michael, Thank you for the photos and taglines. It’s good to see the same trip from another perspective. Happy Chinese New Year. Michael C.
.-= Michael Cannon´s last blog ..Got noodles? Got Sangsom? Got good times! =-.
hey Michael C, thanks. i’m also enjoying reading your take on the trip too. everyone has a unique perspective and each person remembers things that the others might have forgotten. so it’s nice to be reading the other blogs, and going “oh yeah!” hehe enjoy your holiday and take care!
Your pictures are wonderful. Thank you for all the pictures you, your wife, MC, and MT took of your trip. I have never had the opportunity to travel overseas and I am enjoying all of the pictures on the three websites. I appreciate your explaining about the pictures.
hi Carolyn. thanks for reading, and for your kind comments. we enjoy bringing these articles to our readers so they can share our experiences with us. this trip in particular was a really great one and we took over 1,600 photos! so, you can count on more in this series! thanks Carolyn.
OK… being from the USA… I must ask… what makes the Issan sausage so good???
Is it the type of meat they use to make it??? Do they put certain spices in it???
They look pretty tasty… but then again… just about ALL sausages look tasty 🙂
.-= mike01905´s last blog ..New Years Eve 2009 – Boston =-.
hi Mike. well, it’s a dry meat sausage, and a little bit sour flavor. the spices that they use are unique. i can’t think of anything else that tastes even close. you’ll just have to try it. you might want to ask your local Thai place if they have some. thanks Mike.
Well… a Thai place has opened up in the East India Mall in Salem. I took a quick look thru their online menu and I didn’t see Issan sausages…
http://www.thaiplace.net/
By the way… Happy Chinese New Year to you and anyone in Taiwan and other countries in that region that may celebrate it that reads this blog.
.-= mike01905´s last blog ..New Years Eve 2009 – Boston =-.
Mike, if they have Thai sausages, that will give you an idea somewhat. Issan is a specific region of Thailand and unless those people are from northern Thailand they probably won’t have Issan dishes. but you can always ask. we’ve been to Thai places before that turned out to be run by northerners who were only too happy to prepare dishes Issan style. thanks.
Looks like you had a good time… Was it hard to adjust to driving on the wrong side of the road.
hi Colby. the first few times i’d driven in Thailand, it was a real challenge. but we’ve been there so many times and i’ve driven quite a bit there by now, so no, it wasn’t difficult to adjust to driving on the left side of the road. about the only thing i kept going was actuating the windshield wipers instead of the turn signal. that takes awhile to get used to. thanks Colby
MJ I was hanging out to see the next part of your trip and fantastic of course. The temple you stopped at the ceremony was for the Abbot or a senior monk who had passed away. They would have been pouring holy water over his right hand in a way of respect to him.
This ceremony would usually take place for up to 7 days or longer especially for a reverred monk as many people would travel from all over Thailand and Hi-So Thais as well.
His actual cremation could be a year or more away like the monk we saw here in Ubon until his final resting place is built. The monk I refer to Bunmi still hasn’t been cremated as his Chedi isn’t finished still.
The ancient ruins as always photos are excellent and I am heading to flickr to check them all out. I also look forward to reading your fellow travellers reports from the trip as well.
Thai sausage or Sai Gor when made from good ingrediants is tops and with sticky rice and Sangsom you cannot go wrong.
The women on the Looms weaving the patterns amaze me. Here in Ubon their is a village that is renowned for the best Thai silk apparently called Pao Ao I have been there a few times as I was looking and sending it back to Australia but it worked out to not really be worth it.
The shot of you and Michael walking down the village road is a classic, real Thailand at its best.
And the compulsory karaoke night in Thailand, do the Taiwanese love to sing like the Thais do?
Anyway, thanks MJ for this taster and look forward to more of the series.
.-= Brunty´s last blog ..Spiders and Teaching English, Isaan Thailand. =-.
Brunty, once again, you are a veritable font of information, my friend. i really appreciate your comments and giving our readers the fill-in information about certain points of interest. i did not realize that was happening at the temple, for example.
i’ve been amazed at the silk weaving patterns every time i’ve seen them done. all without computers or other mechanical aids. fascinating!
Taiwanese love karaoke too Brunty, and when you finally do get over here, we’ll show you Taiwanese karaoke at it’s best!
take care Brunty!
It looks so beautiful there! You must have had a great time, I have always wanted to go. Can you tell me, do you know how old those ruins date back. I am fascinated by old ruins. Those are just gorgeous! Not to mention the food….thanks for sharing.:)
.-= Kelly´s last blog ..Creative Photography Tips =-.
Kelly, those ruins go back about 800 years. it was an old Khmr sanctuary and they even had a human sacrifice once. you may want to read the article about the first time we visited Puey Noi. thanks for reading Kelly.
hi
wow U r travel in asian 😀 Hope u have fun 😉 have a nice day>:D<
we also live in Asia, in Taiwan. hope you’re enjoying our series on Thailand and Laos. take care.