Thailand (Lonely Planet, 13th Edition) - China Williams [398]
About 8km west of Si Saket on the way to Kamphaeng Yai (on the north side of the highway in a temple with no sign in English) is Prasat Sa Kamphaeng Noi (admission free; daylight hr). Like many other Khmer ruins in the area, Angkor King Jayavarman VII made it a healing station. It had sat as a jumbled pile of rubble for ages, but is finally being re-erected. Still, it’s very modest.
Temples
Officially it’s Wat Pa Maha Chedi Kaeo, but these days nearly everyone calls it Wat Lan Khuat (daylight hr), the ‘Million Bottle Temple’. In 1982 the abbot dreamt of a rah·sàht in heaven made entirely of glass. Realising that glass symbolised the need for clarity of purpose in one’s life, he decided to replicate the idea as best as he could on earth by covering nearly every surface of every building of his current temple with glass bottles. He also figured the idea would save the community lots of money on paint. The more you look around, the less the name seems like an exaggeration. He took the theme one step further by using bottle caps to create much of the adornment. It’s in Khun Han, 11km south of Hwy 24 via Rte 2111. Turn west at the roundabout in the centre of town.
Wat Phra That Rueang Rong (daylight hr) is another unusual temple. A previous abbot, lamenting the loss of the old ways, built the bòht like an oxcart being pulled by two giant cows. He also created a museum (admission free; 7.30am-5pm), with old tools, musical instruments and the like from the province’s four cultures: Lao, Khmer, Suai and Yer. Concrete statues of people on the grounds wear traditional clothes, while oversized animals offer life lessons (lead a bad life and you might come back as a gorilla the next time around). The wát is 7km north of town; take srng·ta·ou 2 (12B, 20 minutes) from in front of the train station.
UBON RATCHATHANI PROVINCE
This varied province, famous across Thailand for its forest temples, pushes down into the jungle-clad intersection of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. To bolster the region’s tourist profile, TAT has labelled its southern reaches the ‘Emerald Triangle’ in recognition of its magnificent green landscapes, and drawing obvious parallels with northern Thailand’s ‘Golden Triangle’. Despite having plenty to entertain the rustic rover, the hoped-for hordes of visitors have failed to arrive.
Phu Chong Nayoi and Pha Taem National Parks are two of Thailand’s most remote corners, and Ubon remains one of the region’s more charming cities.
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History
Ubon’s Mae Nam Mun and Mae Nam Chi river basins were centres for Dvaravati and Khmer cultures many centuries ago. Following the decline of the Khmer empires, the area was settled by groups of Lao in the late 18th century, and they founded the capital city. By the early Ratanakosin era it had become part of monthon Ubon, a southeastern Isan satellite state extending across what are now Surin, Si Saket and Ubon Provinces, as well as parts of southern Laos. Champasak, Laos, was the monthon capital. Today the Lao influence in the province dominates over the Khmer.
UBON RATCHATHANI
pop 115,000
Survive the usual knot of choked access roads and Ubon will reveal an altogether more attractive face. Racked up against Mae Nam Mun, Thailand’s second-longest river, the southern portions of the city have a sluggish character rarely found in the region’s big conurbations. Temples pepper the city, the urban push-and-shove is easily escaped and, despite the quick-time march of modernisation, a deep sense of Isan identity lives on. Few cities in Thailand reward aimless wandering as richly as Ubon.
A US air base during the Vietnam era, 21st-century Ubon is primarily a financial, educational and agricultural market centre for eastern Isan. The nearby Thai–Lao border crossing