Beach, FOOD, and Family: New Year in Chiang Khan

"Suhk san wan bpii mai!!" -"Happy New Year!!," we shouted from the balcony of my dear friend Teacher Phil's home in Chiang Khan, Loei Province, NE Thailand.  Fireworks boomed over the horizon as 2018 turned to 2019, and I felt gratitude from the depths of my being for all of the causes and conditions that led to that moment, to me being in Thailand, in this wonderful home, with this wonderful friend, in this wonderful life.

This post documents the second half of my New Year holiday weekend, spent in the enchanting city of Chiang Khan.

The first half of my holiday weekend was spent in Sangkhom, a western district in my home province of Nong Khai.  See that post here!

Day 1

We arrived to teacher Phil's home in Chiang Khan around noon on December 30, 2018.  This home is actually a hotel, one of the two hotels in the town that are run by her family.  The photo above is the backyard of the smaller of the hotels, the motel that the family live in.

This is the room that T. Phil and I stayed in.  That bed was gloriously comfortable!!

Meet Paula, Thailand's most wonderful dog.  I LOVE Paula.  Every other dog I've met in Thailand so far has either ignored me or tried to attack me, so I stopped expecting any dog here to be friendly.  Paula is incredibly sweet and loving.  She was certainly a highlight of this trip!

We spent the afternoon catching up with Phil's family, having lunch, and napping (I needed to nap after our very few hours of sleep that we got from camping the night before.)  In the evening, we drove to the river to visit the other hotel that their family runs, walk along the river, and go to the Chiang Khan night market.  First, I got to try fresh tamarind off of a tree in their yard, pictured above.  Very sour!

The other hotel is river-front, huge, and so beautiful.  This is the view from the boardwalk in front of the hotel.

This is me with Teacher Phil and Phil's lovely grandma!  The family in Chiang Khan consists of Phil's grandmother, aunt, cousin, and uncle.

The wonderful wood building here is the hotel.

I just love the boardwalk!  It was fun to walk along it as the sun set and changed the dynamic of the cloudy sky.

I love Phil's grandmother!  The tote bag was a gift from another fellow teacher, made by none other than Teacher Phil.

The pants were also a gift from Teacher Phil!  Isn't this panorama glorious?

The part of Nong Khai that I live in does not have many mountains, and I am a mountain girl at heart, so I was truly enchanted by the mountains we got to see along both sides of the river.

Wave hello to Laos!

Happy girl at another part of the Mekong, the river that runs along the town that I call home.

 We walked along the boardwalk until it ended in the Chiang Khan "walking street" night market.

We stumbled upon Wat Si Khun Muang near the beginning of the street.

The darkness of the outside temple was in striking contrast to the illuminated golden Buddha inside.

We were able to take a few steps into the temple before we reached a sign that read, "On this Floor No woman allowd".  Needless to say, we proceeded no further.

We continued along the night market.

We saw two traditional "Chiang Khan ghosts"!  They wore costumes with big headdresses.  There were depictions of these ghosts all over town!

We got coconut milk ice cream from a stand in the market.  YUM.

We then enjoyed one of T. Phil's favorite treats from childhood, Khao Pong.  It is essentially a big, crispy rice pancake.

 We got to watch them make the Khao Pong right before our eyes before purchasing and munching!

We saw the lit up Wat Tha Khrok along our walk.

This one, we were allowed to go fully inside.

We lit candles and incense and payed respect to the Buddha.

After this, we walked back through the market and ended up at the hotel, where we waited for Phil's aunt to pick us up to go home and sleep.

Here is a video compilation of my first day in Chiang Khan:

Day 2

(New Year's Eve)

On New Year's Eve, we woke up at 5 AM to cook and give alms to the monks from the nearby temple.



Phil and Phil's aunt cooked a massive amount of sticky rice - this wasn't even all of it!  We filled the two smaller baskets to the left of the dish and headed to the temple.

We rode T. Phil's motorbike!  The sun had not even risen yet.

As the monks passed through the gate, we placed balls of sticky rice into their alms bowls.  I took this photo after all of the monks had come and gone.

We returned to the family home, where Phil's aunt was cooking a big pot of breakfast soup to bring to the hotel by the river.  We drove to the hotel and I got to enjoy the beautiful riverfront from the wooden furniture balcony.

Now, the sun had risen, and the sky was painted with beautiful colors and clouds.

The surface of the river reflected the sky above.

In the later morning, we went to the outdoor market to purchase a variety of mushrooms.

Back at home, I got to spend some divine quality time with Paula.  I MISS HER!!

I then took a late morning nap, as we had gotten up so early again and I was not yet caught up on sleep from our camping adventure.  Phil joked, "When you visit here, all you need to do is sleep and eat!"  I gladly obliged!  When I woke up, the view from the kitchen (which has a roof but is pretty much outdoors) was simply so beautiful, I had to snap a photo.

Lunch was fish, sticky rice, and a delicious mix of greens and water chestnuts.

Also, pineapple!  On our way to Sangkhom, Phil and I stopped at a roadside pineapple stand and purchased something like 20 pineapples for only 200 BAHT.  That's an average of 30 cents per ENTIRE pineapple.

They have a couple of chicks!  They are so cute and chirp all the time.

In the early afternoon, Phil took me to the temple that we had visited in the morning to give alms to the monks.

This temple is one of the most light-filled, beautifully designed temples I have ever visited.

This temple has three levels.  The second level features these beautiful statues, each representing a different Buddha.

The top level is a dome, filled with life-sized (and very realistic) statues of important Thai monks.

An emerald Buddha is at the center.

When you look up, you see an incredibly intricate painted dome ceiling with images from the life of the Buddha.

It is a truly spectacular sight.

A Roxi, for scale.

The bottom level contains golden Buddhas...

...and scenes of the Buddha's life depicted in stained glass windows.  I loved these.  I walked around the circular temple multiple times to look at these windows, which let in such beautiful colored light.

 

The entire life of the Buddha, in stained glass.  A unique feature that made this temple so memorable for me.

Thank you, Wat Si Phanom Mat!

We next drove high up a mountain to visit the Little Elephant Temple, Wat Phu Chang Noi.

We lit candles and incense to pay respect to the golden Buddha.

We got our fortunes using these jars of sticks.  Each stick has a number on it; you shake the tipped jar until one stick falls out, then choose the fortune associated with the number on the stick that fell.

Chan naptue puhth: "I am Buddhist." (Literally, "I respect Buddha.")

The view from outside the temple.  We were at the peak of a mountain, so we could see so far in every direction.  Some of the mountains in this photo are in Thailand, and some are in Laos.

Another direction.  Do you see the river?  The mountains on the other side are Laos!



Silhouette of the glorious Buddha.



My attempt at a panorama of the scene.

We were able to climb atop the temple to the base of the big Buddha.

The view behind the temple: mountains of Loei, Thailand.

I loved the Little Elephant Temple.  I am very grateful to T Phil for bringing me all the way up the mountain to visit this place!

Next was one of the true highlights of this trip, and of my time in Thailand.  We went to the beach!!!

This sign says "Kaeng Khut Khu," the beach of the mythical giant, Kaeng Khut.

This beach is actually a river beach, one like none I had ever seen.

The sandy, rocky banks, the river water, the mountains of Laos and Thailand, and the ferries giving people spectacular views and unique perspectives of the watery border.  See the people on the sand?

To get to the sand, you must cross the rocky river.

Phil asked me if I would like to take the ferry, and I said absolutely!

We climbed into the shaky boat and donned life vests with our fellow ferry riders.

I am so glad that we opted to do this.  I think it was around $1 per person for a 25 minute ride.

The wake of the water surrounding our ferry, with the mountains of Thailand behind us.

Sailor Phil!

We first went up to the shore of Laos.

I was a little bit concerned for a second that we were actually heading to the land of Laos - I didn't have my passport and didn't want to get stuck abroad!

We came very close, but we did not disembark.  We did however get to wave to some locals and tourists sitting on the Laotian docks! 

Caught taking a photo of the glorious mountains.

25 minutes is a long time!  Phil took a little river-ride nap.

Back to Thailand!

After getting off of the boat, Phil asked if I wanted to go on the beach, and I said of course.  I have always loved the beach, from the earliest parts of my childhood.  I had never been to a beach quite like this before!

The river was not too deep here, but the rocks were not super pleasant to walk on with bare feet.  Worth it, though!

The river was not cold, especially in the most shallow places, where it was quite warm.  Have I mentioned yet that it is the depths of winter here and daytime temperatures are still around 85 degrees?  Brr!

The beach is mostly made up of rocks, rocks, and more rocks.

Keep walking, however, and you do reach some sandy mud!  This felt so nice on my feet after all of the rocks.

Happy girl to be walking on sand.

Enjoying the shores of the Mekong.  I was so tickled to actually be in this river, as usually I just see it from above and wonder what it feels like!

Even on a holiday, there were very few people on the beach with us.

This photo brings me such peace.  Reliving this experience through photos is a complete pleasure.

There were some prime stone-skipping opportunities!  Phil was very good at it.  I successfully skipped a stone exactly once, and it was a substantial victory!

Phil made a "Roxi" sign with rocks in the sand.

Thank you, teacher!  I love it.

We saw a couple of children playing in the water and Phil asked if they would take a photo with me.  The girl was happy to, but the boy was pretty reluctant.  Sorry, sweetie!  Thanks for the picture.

This small child naked and frolicking in the river embodied the spirit I hope to keep alive throughout my life.

This is the mythical hunter giant, the namesake of the beach.



Practicing my archery pose!

This is the story of the giant, Kaeng Khut.  The legend goes: he lived on the mountains of the river and placed all of the rocks that make up the beach.  He died while trying to transport rocks from one country to the other.

Children playing in the nose of the giant.

We had a post-beach snack of coconut water and crispy fried prawns.

On our way home, we stopped at the temple of Wat Tha Khaek.

 We ran into Teacher Phil's high school English teacher here!  It was very neat, as Phil now teaches English to kindergarteners.

We returned home, and then took an evening motorbike ride to the grocery store for some important NYE dinner ingredients.

The lottery drawing was that night, and T. Phil actually won 2,000 baht (~$80 USD)!!  This was so exciting, as it seems to me that winning the lottery here is even more difficult than in the US, as there is a lot of strategy required in the ticket buying process.

A couple hours later, it was dinner time!  We readied the hotpot, the sauces, and the fixings.

This dinner was so delicious.  We had a constant flow of vegetables, mushrooms, and noodles going in and out of the hotpot, as well as the grill, with shrimps, mushroom skewers, and corn.  Everything was dipped in the sauces: red chilli sauce, green seafood sauce, and creamy mayo-like sauce.  YUM.

With Phil, Phil's Aunt Oy, and cousin Mary's girlfriend, Ing.

And a photo including Mary!  Such a special dinner experience.  We ate together from around 9 to 10:30 PM.

We actually went to sleep for a short while then, and woke up at midnight for the fireworks and to say, Suhk san wan bpii mai!

Happy New Year to all.

A day 2 compilation video, including temples, beach, and the turn of the New Year:

Day 3

(New Year's Day!!)

Good morning, 2019.  (2562, in Thailand.  Here, they use two calendars: the solar calendar, in which it is 2019 of the Common Era, and the lunar calendar, in which it is 2562 of the Buddhist Era.)  We again woke up at 5 to give alms to the monks.  It turned out that the monks were not out this morning, however, so we turned back with our sticky rice offerings.

The chicks joined us for breakfast!

The best way to ring in the new year: SUCH GOOD FOOD.  Khai jeow (Thai omelette, left) is my favorite food in Thailand, so I was stoked to have it as food #1 of 2019.  We also had egg, tofu, and vegetable skillets, sticky rice, and a delicious local dish, mushroom salad.  All covered with sweet chili sauce.  Probably my favorite meal of the trip!

Now, it was time to leave Phil's family.  But first, it was very important to take many pictures!



PAULA!!!



Her paw is on my hand.  I actually like spelling her name "Pawla," though I don't think that was the intention behind her name.



I miss all of the wonderful family members of Teacher Phil!  I now feel like I have a family in Chiang Khan.  I hope to visit again!

Off on our way to the next adventure, we stopped for drinks from the Starbucks of Thailand, Cafe Amazon.  This was the beautiful view behind the cafe!  There are COWS across the pond.  I LOVE cows.



A delicious chocolate drink treat to welcome in 2562.



While waiting for our drinks, we found some lovely Chiang Khan signage and took advantage of the photo opportunities.

Thank you for bringing me to your wonderful home of Chiang Khan, T. Phil!

I love this city and hope to return.

Before leaving Loei, we were off to visit P. Meow - remember him, from our Sangkhom camping trip?  He owns an electronics shop.  He fixed Phil's phone screen while we played with his awesome 15 year-old cat, Tam!

I love Tam!

Tam helps P. Meow work... and also tries to step on what he's working on to sabotage the project.

P. Meow closed up his shop for a little while to go out to lunch with us!

We had shrimp pad thai and shrimp fried rice.  YUM.

 

Dessert was a caramel chocolate cake that we split between the three of us.  This was so good.

In the afternoon, we said goodbye to P. Meow and finally headed home to Nong Khai.

 Early in our three hour drive, we stopped to pick up sweet tamarind, a delicious treat that essentially dries and candies the tamarind inside the crisp shell.  T. Phil bought many sacks of these, to give as New Year gifts back in Nong Khai.

Here is a video compilation of Day 3 in Chiang Khan:

At last, we had returned to Nong Khai after a wonderful six day holiday through Sangkhom and Chiang Khan.  A massive thank you to Teacher Phil and her family/friends for gifting me a home for the New Year holiday.  I love you all so much!  You have a home in Los Angeles and a friend in me.

Happy New Year to all!!!

สุขสันต์วันปีใหม่

Suhk san wan bpii mai!!