I’m still lazing away the days on the banks of the Mekong in Nong Khai, warm days with lots of sunshine. It reminds me a lot of Africa. I got out into the countryside a bit today on an old, beaten-up, one-speed bicycle. I visited the very weird {{link http://www.mutmee.net/030010_sculpture_park.htm Salakaewkoo}} grounds. It is the creation of a Laotian man, who died in 1996 after spending 27 years on this project. It is his take on life in general and Buddhism in particular, I suppose. There are cement statues by the dozens, some close to 100 feet high, many of them very bizarre, like the two skeletons in a very loving embrace. His mummified remains are encased in glass on the third floor of the temple on the grounds. A very interesting place, eerie, bizarre, otherworldly. The 74-years old “curator” gave me a tour of the temple. His English is somewhat broken, but I got his age out of him and he asked for mine. He also said he had been working at the temple for two years, and that there are, unusually, both Hindu and Buddhist influences in the temple and grounds. Quite a nice old gentleman. I talked to another fellow, though, at length, and his English was quite decent. He was from Khon Kaen, someways down the road, but was in Nong Khai for a funeral. It seems that one of his inlaws fell in the toilet and hit his head on the floor. What a way to go! Hmmm, tsunami or toilet, I guess we all gotta go sometime! This guy was also a Buddhist monk for 12 years in Bangkok, and worked in Japan for 10 years, which is where he learned his English. He was very informative about Buddhism. Another very friendly Thai. I’ll write more about Salakaewkoo when I post photos after I return. Click the link above to read more about it and see some photos. My Buddhist friends in Missoula, Susan, Lynne, and Marga, would love this place, I think.
(To read more, click on, uhmmmm, “more” below)
On the way back to the guesthouse, just a few hundred yards down the road from Salakaewkoo, one must bicycle through one of the local wats and an adjoining school. I stopped to play some table tennis with several of the local kids, very adorable and friendly. Got some good photos of them, too. It’s a very pleasant ride along the river road, not much traffic to worry about and the old bicycle actually made it back to the guesthouse. Tomorrow, though, I’m going to try to rent a motorbike and get farther out into the country.
The tsunami deaths keeps rising, {{link http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=370716 some estimates}} placing the death toll at over 100,000. The {{link http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=1476372004 new concern}} is that the number might double, due to diseases, like cholera, dysentery, and typhoid, and lack of clean water, especially with all the unburied bodies and all the ones that haven’t been found yet. I just can’t imagine the horrendous devastation caused by this thing; it’s scope was, and is, awesome. {{link http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/story.jsp?story=596831 Scientists are saying}} that the quake itself moved islands, caused the earth to wobble on its axis, and increased the rate of rotation, thus shortening our day–not enough to be noticeable, of course, but that is a good description of the power of the cataclysm. We’ll probably not see another like it in our lifetimes, hopefully.
But, here in N.E. Thailand, at least, life flows on, much like the Mekong. Oh, yes, I did take the dinner cruise on the river the other night–very enjoyable and peaceful, despite the interesting Thai pop music playing in the background on a television, ala MTV. It was the usual teen angst type of stuff, as far as I could tell–lovers quarreling, dieing, making up, etc., but the music itself was a tuneful fusion of traditional Thai (as far as I could tell) and western pop. We were on a rickety old boat, but the engine sounded healthy enough. In my paranoid fantasy, I wondered how far down the river we would drift if it quit on us.
I went shopping at {{link http://www.tescolotus.net/Default.asp?Lang=English Tesco Lotus}}, kind of a Thai Wal-Mart (God forbid). The wall socket in the guesthouse is too large for my camera battery charger, so I bought an adapter, no problem. But, I forgot to buy some mosquito repellent to fend off the evening hordes that attack me mercilessly. I’ll get some tomorrow. More later.
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