Thailand From Khong Chiam to Bangkok: or how to find a lost temple Khong Chiam, Northeastern Provinces (Issan), Ubon Ratchathani, Travel to Thailand 0 (0)Story of this last day in Issan, we say our goodbyes (with local purchases!) to Khong Jiam and prepare to return to the bustling capital that is our home.At Khong Chiam Market and Sirindhorm DamIt is New Year's Eve. For reasons I won't go into here, we were going back on this day, December 31st, and no later. Before leaving Khong Chiam we stopped at the market, just at the end of the street from the hotel, to bring back some souvenir food, as is often done in Thailand, in this case, the local specialty is Moo Yor (steamed pork sausage)Paradoxically, we won't find any at this market, but we will still take some snacks, especially for our breakfast, which we plan to have later.Not being in a hurry either, we take the time to stop at the Sirindhorm dam a few km further. Well, especially for Jitima in fact, who tells me in passing that she has simply never seen a dam... Curiosity therefore brings us here, unfortunately for her it is not really a dam with "charm", nothing impressive.We will eat our breakfast in the small park along the edge of the lake and then we will quickly get back on the road.Siridhorn Lake near Khong Chiam.View of the lake at the Sirindhorn dam.On the Siridhorn barrare near Khong Chiam.Wat Ban Kut, the lost temple that only Google Maps knows about…Then follows a long journey of 400km with nothing to report except the long scrolling of dry rice fields in this season. Then comes the funny moment of the day. We have the habit when we travel like this across the country (and more particularly like on New Year's Eve) to make a donation in a temple, donation which consists of giving basic necessities to the monks (toothbrushes, soaps, basic medicines etc.) As the monks only live on these donations, we always favor small temples, far from the main roads and with little traffic, because these are temples that are in greater demand than others in the middle of a village or near a major road, with regular traffic and donations.This is how we will land at Wat Ban Bu Kut Chok. Because yes Google knows this tiny temple, 3 monks on the counter, and again, only for about ten years while the temple remained abandoned for a long time…As we were approaching Nakhon Ratchasima (which we were passing through right next to) I had just looked at Google maps to find a temple in the area because I thought it was time to stop there before it was too late. I was leaving the main road #24 to land on a road, at least that's what I thought according to the GPS... Because in fact no road but rather a dirt road, red and dusty...Jitima looks at me and says, "Are you sure there's a temple around here?" And while we're in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by sweet potato fields, I tell him yes, according to the "big" Google... And I was confident.And indeed, some 5km further and we will find the said temple. There was in fact a real direct road to find it (n°2298) but I thought that the road a few km before would be of the same ilk…We will find an old monk who will perform the necessary ceremony for a donation like this (prayer and blessing). This one, due to the highly improbable nature of our coming (plus I am a foreigner) will give us jewelry and especially amulets, convinced that this meeting is not the result of chance but Buddhism obliges, we had already met in a past life.“Special” decoration at the temple.The new building at Ban Bu Kot Chok temple.After this Buddhist interlude we got back on the road, not without hitting a huge traffic jam 70km further on when joining the national road 2 (which connects Bangkok to Nakhon Ratchasima, aka Khorat).As it was moving super slowly and we were still on schedule (the goal being to be back in time for the fireworks in Bangkok) we stopped at a motorway service station, had a bite to eat and this time bought our "Moo Yor".We will lose almost 1h30 in total but after the break, the traffic jam will only last 30 minutes more before finally clearing. We will finally arrive well before midnight. Rather than going back I suggested going straight to Central World and finding a good spot for the fireworks.Even before 23pm there was a monstrous crowd like never before. Super condensed, it jostles, we sweat. We will find a corner more or less not "sandwiched" but meh because at the corner of the Gaysorn building which faces the "Zen" part of Central World.We won't see the fireworks very well, which are frankly short and disappointing for a city of the size of Bangkok.Then followed the horror of returning to the BTS, the stairs going up to the walkway were literally stormed, we wedged ourselves into a corner out of the way near a barrier while waiting for it to calm down. People looked "crazy", moving, walking on the scooters parked there, overflowing over the barriers near which we were "taking refuge". Quite a surreal scene...Finally, the flow being uninterrupted, we managed to sneak towards the middle of Rama I Street after a good half-hour of waiting and take the stairs directly to the BTS station which was paradoxically quieter. In the future, I think we won't come there for New Year's Eve...And you, where were you for New Year 2014? Did you like the article? Vote on the article Note globale 0 / 5. Number of votes: 0 No votes yet. Be the first to rate this article! Did you like the article? Follow me on social media Culture and traditions Local meetings Buddhist temple 0 2 Roman 27/04/2014
