Northeast Thailand
We spent 10 peaceful days in an Isan village in north - east Thailand with our son , 17 month old grandson , and daughter-in-law at Nui’s parents’ house. We were really well looked after and enjoyed every minute of it. Such friendly,hospitable people.
During the time we visited Ban Chiang National Museum which was excellent. It was declared a Unesco World Heritage site 16 years ago , being one of the most important archaeological sites in Southeast Asia. Many artefacts and much evidence has been found here of civilisations existing up to 6000 years ago. 7 layers of civilisations have been found and the whole thing was initially discovered accidentally in 1966.
We had a couple of days out , walking and visiting waterfalls and parks etc in the local area. Also one day Ady and I ended up in the paddi fields planting rice , up to our calfs squelching in warm mud , it was an interesting experience which Nui had been used to doing since the age of 6. We only survived an hour and luckily the day was not too hot but I imagine it would be back-breaking work in the hot sunshine all day long. Unfortunately we did not have our camera with us!
We went to Nong Khai for a day and walked across the Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River which links Laos to Thailand. Donated by the people of Australia to the people of Thailand and the people of Laos in 1994. We also visited Sala Kaew Ku sculpture park in Nong Khai which is full of dozens of giant statues of Shiva, Vishnu, Buddha etc up to 25m high. Really worthwhile, really interesting.
Now the youngsters have returned to England and we are heading to Chiang Mai .
Till next time ……
