For the New Year holiday weekend, my Thai teacher friend took me on a trip to her home in Loei, the neighboring province to Nong Khai. On the way, we went through Sangkhom, the western district of Nong Khai. We camped at the coolest campsite I've ever seen, visited so many incredible temples, and saw some views beyond compare. Come along to Sangkhom with me!
First, we visited Wat Si Chompu Ong Tue.
This temple is home to the largest precious metal Buddha image in Nong Khai.
This gold, silver, and bronze Buddha was cast in 1562!!
I had the privilege of hitting the huge gong, which reverberated over the grounds of the temple and made for a profound experience.
The ornate gold, red, blue, and green design makes this temple such a beautiful piece of sacred architecture.
Below the temple, we participated in the tradition of releasing fish into the Mekong river.
There are dozens of buckets of tiny fish for sale by the river banks. Visitors purchase these to free the fish into the open water, a practice that is considered to generate merit and good karma.
Back home you go, fish friends.
Next, we visited Wat Aranyabanpot.
We were in here by ourselves at first, having some nice one-on-one time with the golden Buddha.
Then, a kind monk joined us! He was very curious about me, so we talked for awhile.
The language barrier caused a bit of confusion when I did not understand what he was asking me. My Thai has gotten much better, but I still have so much to learn!
A very special experience, to say the least. More people arrived, so Phil and I made our way out of the temple.
Glorious white temple topped with golden spires.
The monk who founded this temple is eternalized as a life-sized figure in this enclosure by the main hall, seated in meditation.
On we went! I soaked in the lush, green hills as we travelled through the countryside.
The next stop was Wat Pha Tak Suea, a temple featuring the famous Nong Khai Skywalk.
I am afraid of heights, a fact evidenced by my face in the photo above. The skywalk has a see-through glass floor, showcasing the fact that we were quite high off of the tree-covered cliffside below.
Eek!! This photo still makes my heart flutter. (Don't worry: after being on the walk for a little while, I became more comfortable and trusted that it would not spontaneously shatter for me to fall through.)
The view of the Mekong River, the mountains of Laos, and the countryside of Sangkhom was well worth it.
Meet Teacher Phil, my wonderful friend and host for the weekend!
Really cool panorama shot by Teacher Phil.
A great place for photo opportunities - and we were certainly not the only ones taking advantage of this!
The skywalk was overall such an enjoyable experience! If you ever travel to Nong Khai, this is a great stop to make.
After the main attraction, we took a road less traveled and descended a few impressive sets of cliff-side stairs to get closer to the forest floor beneath the skywalk. It took a lot of effort not to fall into the mud!
Far below the skywalk and near the base of the cliff, there is actually a small dwelling where monks reside.
Would you like to live at the base of a cliff?
The rock formations that make up the cliff seem so precarious, yet they have probably been set like this for hundreds of millions of years.
Back up enumerable sets of stairs (many levels above the skywalk!), we arrived at the temple, Wat Pha Tak Suea. Monks were doing a ritual inside, so we could not go in.
There is another temple under construction next to the main one. It kind of looks like a temple skeleton, doesn't it?
On our way out of the Wat Pha Tak Suea and Skywalk grounds, there was a pretty great viewpoint that was definitely worth pulling over and snapping a picture. I think my hair here is hilarious!
Next, we drove to Dinpieng Cave and Temple. Notice my essential tomato juice box; I was getting hungry!
We got in line outside the cave entrance, waiting for the tour guide (holding the microphone in the photo) to take us inside.
Heading in...
This set of caves is also known as the Naga Caves. The Naga is the mythical sea serpent of the Mekong that is famed and featured throughout Nong Khai. The cave system stretches all the way to Laos!!
This cave is also a revered Buddhist site that was established as a temple in 1938.
Touching the sacred cave wall.
The tour of the cave was a pretty claustrophobia-inducing experience! The spaces were tight, and it was hard for me to fit through -- and I'm not very tall or very wide! There was one part that we had to crawl through like a snake, on our stomachs, under a low rock overhang. Eek!!
Some portions of the cave are filled with water, but never too deep to wade through with pants rolled above the knees.
Selfie with the cave formations.
Climbing out was pretty wild. You have to hold a rope and scale a very slippery slope...
...but we made it!! A magnificent golden Buddha greeted us at the exit.
Lunch from a little restaurant outside the cave grounds. The center dish is crispy fried bananas. They are delicious!
Rice dish, seafood/meat skewers (seafood for me), vegetables, and fried bananas.
After a long day of temples, caves, and awesome views, we headed to the campsite where we would spend the night.
This was by far the coolest campsite I've ever been to! They have pre-set up tents that you rent for the night. The camp is right by the Mekong River.
Our tents! One for me and Teacher Phil, the other for her two friends that met us at the campsite.
The site featured a very cool hut that we had full access to.
There were pillows, mats, and outlets up there!
Also, a great beach-side hammock below.
Meet Jo-Jo and P Meow! Jo-Jo is a friend of Teacher Phil's from university, and is actually an English teacher for first and second graders. P Meow is Jo-Jo's older brother. Here is our cooking set-up!
Teacher Phil provided all of the seafood I could ever want - she is such a good friend. Uncooked shrimps, called gong in Thai.
Gong cooking and turning pink so quickly!
We had a hot-pot going in the center of our four-person circle, with a constant flow of vegetables, noodles, and fish/meat in and out of the stock. The grill was going as well, supplying dozens of shrimp for us all. Those sauces were all sooo good. I'm getting hungry looking at this photo!
We kept cooking, eating, and chatting late into the night. Other campers did the same by our neighboring tents. It began to rain as evening fell, so we had to quickly set up a makeshift awning to protect us and our food!
It got cold at night, so I donned a Santa hat. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Ho, ho, ho!
Around 10 PM, we fired up dinner round 2, to finish up our hot pot from earlier (and to minimize the headache I acquired from continuously drinking wine coolers all night, haha!).
We went to sleep around midnight. Good night, camp!
A video documenting Day 1 of this Sangkhom adventure:
Day 2
We were up at 5 AM to catch a ride to the top of the nearby mountain to watch the sunrise.
This is the vehicle we took, called a tektek (different from a tuktuk). We sat on the front platform!
It was a very bumpy dirt road up, up, and up the mountain.
We arrived just as the hints of the impending sunrise were beginning to appear on the horizon.
Welcoming the light of day from high over the Mekong.
The lush, forested mountains of western Nong Khai gained rich shades of green color as the sun rose.
The grey clouds adopted pinks, oranges, and golds, constantly shifting with every passing minute.
Breathtaking sunrise experience.
Selfie of the campers, running on minimal sleep but enjoying the expansive views nonetheless.
The rainclouds from the night before made for dramatic, ever-changing morning skies.
Good morning sun, river, Laos, and Thailand!
This vertical panorama features the crescent moon above the mountainous sunrise.
Taken just seven minutes after the previous photo! Notice how much bluer the sky and river are, and how the clouds have shifted!
Another four minutes later. I had never so thoroughly tracked a sunrise like this. Even though I was very tired, this experience was so worth it.
We were not the only ones on the mountain that day. This is the line to catch a tektek back down the mountain. Each tektek can take maximum ten people... we were here for awhile.
"We'll get back to the campsite eventually... right?"
We had plenty of time to explore the surrounding plant life and take some fun photos.
Don't forget to peek through the vegetation for some divine mountain views.
I was so happy with these beauties. I am a mountain girl at heart!
After half an hour in the line, the sun had risen some and changed the entire dynamic of the sky and view below.
I love Sangkhom!
After 45 minutes in line, it was our turn for the tektek. Woo hoo!
This time we were sitting on the back, so we got to watch the mountain road above us as we were on our descent.
Finally, we made it back to our campsite. This Buddha graces the campsite parking lot to welcome campers to their temporary homes.
Good morning, camp!
We made a fantastic breakfast of eggs, sticky rice, shrimp, sausage, cucumber, and bananas.
It's Blue Peep! For those who do not know, this is my dog's toy that I *borrowed* as a sentimental item, to explore the world with me. He loved the beachside campsite hammock.
At around 10:30 AM, we parted with Jo-Jo and P Meow and headed out of camp, bound for Phil's home in the neighboring province of Loei!
The next post will pick up at this point, when we arrived in Teacher Phil's hometown, Chiang Khan.
A video documenting the morning in Sangkhom:
That wraps up this post about my two days in Sangkhom! I hope you enjoyed coming along. Thank you for reading!
See you soon for the continuation post of this New Year's holiday adventure!
☸
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