Roi Et Re-visited – 25 Years On (photo report)

[Big Boy]

Part 6

Day 3 – Wat Pa Kung

We then moved on about 60Km to Wat Pa Kung in Si Somdet. This was actually quite a big shrine/pagoda hidden within a fairly spooky woodland clearing. The entire area was now abandoned.

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It was built by Luang Poo Sri Mahaweero. This is Thailand's first natural sand pagoda. It was built in the nineties as the monument of the 90th anniversary of the 60th year of Phra Thep Sutthi Mongkol. "Luang Poo Sri Mahaweero" was a famous teacher priest in meditation branch in northeastern region. The pagoda imitated from Borobudur in Java Island, Indonesia since Luang Poo visited there for Buddhist purpose in 1988 and was impressed by the mightiness of this pagoda.

It once contained the Buddha's relics located at the center of the pagoda. When I was inside, there was a sort of empty showcase on the lower level, so I guess they had been removed.

There were 4 of us in our party, 1 male, and 3 female. We were all wearing shorts, and despite the entire area being devoid of human life, the ladies insisted they could not enter because they were inappropriately dressed. Or were they just afraid to enter this deserted shrine? In I went – alone. Indiana Jones would have been proud of me.

It was spotless inside, and had obviously built to a very high standard. I would go as far as saying it was built to the same standards as the Wat Tang Sai temple in Ban Krut. Why had this place been abandoned? Inside, there were quite a few Buddha images and portraits around the walls, but there was also an abundance of empty space down there. I was on floor one, where the empty display cabinet was. I suppose it was quite eerie down here. Was I wandering around some guys burial chamber? I wandered around this fantastic ‘shrine?’ all alone, with fairly low lighting. Maybe somebody scared of ghosts might have found this very unpleasant.

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In the middle of the empty space was a very grand wooden staircase (no photo), which wouldn’t have been out of place in a Royal Palace. Being a nosey git, I went up. Thinking as I type, at the top of the stairs was another display cabinet.

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This one had stuff inside, but I didn’t take that much notice at the time. I wonder if this cabinet contained the relics? I guess this is one of the problems exploring alone, where everything is written in a strange language. Again, there were quite a few Buddha images and portraits around the walls, and another abundance of empty space. Very nice to look around, but I didn’t really know what I was looking at.

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I made my way back outside again, sort of impressed at what I’d seen, but totally baffled why I was the only person visiting such a beautiful place.

Once outside, I walked around the ramparts (not sure if that is the correct word). Quite impressive, and I took the mandatory photos.

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I then re-joined the ladies, who were enjoying their stroll through the woods, and asking me if I’d seen the peacock – der…… I’ve been inside that massive building; how would I have seen it?

We were making our way through the spooky woods, and out of the grounds, when our driver said if you go down that way, there is a lake, and birds to see. Did we want to have a look? My reaction was, we’ve travelled 60Km to get here, if there’s something worth seeing, we are as well getting our money’s worth. It was a decent road, but you could see it was infested with mosquitoes. Just as well I’d sprayed up before leaving the hotel. The ladies were not so well prepared.

Down at the lake, it was no longer deserted. There were nuns doing cleaning tasks, and they had quite a bit of nun accommodation (I don’t know if Convent is an appropriate word to Thailand). I’d guess that it was these ladies who keep the previously visited shrine so spotless. There was also an abundance of chickens and peacocks wandering around.

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There was quite a big lake, very well stocked with fish, and a very impressive modern Buddhist building in the centre of the lake. I didn’t bother getting too close, I’d have had to remove my shoes and walk on hot concrete to get to it – no thank you.

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I carried on walking and beyond the building was a massive Loy Krathong in the middle of the lake – upon closer inspection, I think this might have been quite an impressive fountain in its day.

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I carried on walking (the ladies had given up at the peacocks, and were sat in the shade), and there in front of me was a very large iguana with the most beautiful markings. I tried to get close, but he/she was having none of it. A good job my camera has a decent zoom. When viewing the iguana on my camera, family were baffled at how I can be so paranoid about ants and other bugs, but chased after this huge, beautiful creature, which they considered some sort of monster.

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We then left this place, seeing a wild tortoise on the way out,

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and made our way back to Roi Et, to visit the one bit of Roi Et I had fond memories of, Bueng Phlan Chai Park. This was going to be the jewel in the crown on this return to Roi Et, and hopefully we wouldn’t be disappointed.

To be continued…………………………..

[joelle]

Great pictures, specially the ones of the iguana.
Fully understand the hate of ants and fascination for the wonderful iguana and the likes, I feel the same way.
Interesting report thanks.

[Big Boy]

Part 7

Day 3 – Bueng Phlan Chai Park

En-route, we passed the row of bars and restaurants I’d heard about alongside the park, which was where we intended going to with extended family in the evening. It looked very touristy, and not really suitable for a farewell party, with family. Travelling alone, I’d have probably enjoyed the place, but I discounted it as a place to go with extended family. I requested the family find somewhere more suitable for the evening, which they did, and did us proud (more later).

I have many fond memories of this park, and have heard a lot of good improvements had taken place. We would see.

When we got there, we were encountering our first daytime rain of the trip. Huge rain drops, but not that many of them. However, we got my wife (not allowed to get wet) into her foul weather clothing as a precaution.

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First thing I noticed was that in true Thai fashion, there were decorated lampposts all around the park. Here in Roi Et, the decoration was a Wot (Vote).

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First stop was paying homage at what I presume is the city’s Pillar Shrine.

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First memory to come flooding back to me was standing on the banks of this shrine (before the writing was there) on Loy Krathong night many, many moons ago. The park was packed, but the bank was empty – we thought we’d stand there for a great view of the fireworks display. We soon found out why the bank was empty, we were the fireworks display. There were strings of fireworks above us (it was dark, so we couldn’t see them) – they basically rained fire down upon us. OK, funny now, but not at the time. Such is the Health and Safety in Thailand, nobody thought to tell us what was about to happen. I think a new land speed record was recorded in Thailand that night.

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Next stop we walked out onto one of the small piers that go out onto the lake. My wife, son and I used to buy Spring Rolls from a street seller, and go out there to eat them. There was always a cooling breeze on the pier, which was quite a relief to us holiday makers.

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We then wandered around the island, which is the park. How much it has changed. Firstly, a lakeside running track, where the ladies bought some bread to feed the very plentiful fish.

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In the centre of the park is a massive adventure playground.

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Numerous bridges on and off of the island. One of the bridges built since we were there last was being demolished, and a new one built in its place. Another one was closed, pending demolition.

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There was so much ongoing development around the park. Sculptured gardens, and some very impressive public loos (more about Roi Et’s public loos in my final summary).

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This really was a beautiful part of Thailand, and the people of Roi Et should be proud of it.

This was also a scenic place to take more photos of the Roi Et Tower.

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It was then back to the hotel, to freshen up, before treating the in-laws to a farewell meal. How nice to return to an ant free room.

To be continued…………………………..

[Big Boy]

Part 8

Day 3 – Bangkok33

We were picked up about 17:30 and taken to local restaurant called Bangkok 33.

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We’ve been seeing very nice looking bars/restaurants all over Roi Et, but this was the first and last we’d actually been taken to. What a place – as good anything we have in Hua Hin. 2 large air conditioned units (we were in one) and a lot of outdoor (covered) seating. Live music with acts regularly rotating. It was lovely.

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Not expensive either – food and drinks for 9 of us came to 2,772฿ – that’s just over 300฿/head. The food and drink just came coming – it was free flow. Only one thing let it down, the chips were, for the first time in Roi Et, of the frozen variety. That aside, I was very impressed.

I think it was the range of drinks that really impressed me. Not your usual bottles of Leo and Chang, or bottles of Sangsom. A much higher class of drinks, and they were selling litre bottles of decent spirits as if they were about to go out of fashion. I lost count of the number of big bottles of Johnny Walker Black that I saw sold. I’ve never seen the like in Hua Hin. So much for Thais not having money.

Just before we finished, a street seller came around the bar selling fruit. One of our party, a 14 year old girl asked if she could have some grapes, and we bought them for her. Wow!!! Grapes on steroids – they were like golf balls. I’ve never seen a grape like it. I’ve since found out they are called Shine Muscat Grapes – very sweet and seedless. Coincidentally, I’ve seen the same kind of grapes advertised in Bluport and Market Village, Hua Hin this week at double the price, for a smaller container. I’m not really talking about the price though, just the sheer size of these grapes was amazing. Like small apples. I wish I’d taken a photograph. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shine_Muscat

To be continued…………………………..

[caller]

The Muscat grapes are widely available in Thailand. We have been to the fruit market in Rangsit to buy in bulk and then hand out to family (originate in China). They are often discounted in the supermarkets as well. I have some in the fridge right now, at the other halfs condo in Bkk, a big punnet for 199 baht, from Gourmet Market in Emquartier.

Edit - the grapes at the market were from the imported fruit section.

[Big Boy]

Maybe, I don't doubt you at all. It's just that I've never seen such big grapes. Actually, maybe I have seen them, but assumed they were some other Thai fruit. It was only when people were calling them grapes that I actually took notice, with disbelief.

The punnet in Roi Et was huge and only cost 100฿. Probably 50 monster sized grapes per punnet.

I reckon they must have been about 8x the size of a regular grape.

[Big Boy]

Part 9

Day 4 – The Journey Home

As usual, my wife was excited because we were going home. She woke me up at 5am (our flight was at 12:30, after all). I suppose I should be grateful, packing wasn’t a rush. Our new room was still ant free – I had become obsessed by the little beasties, and was continually looking for them.

We had arranged for our daughter to join us at the hotel for breakfast at 8am. Thankfully, breakfast was back to morning 1 standards, with one exception – there was no coffee. OMG, how would I get by body working without at least 3 coffees? I don’t drink tea, people drown in water, so the alternative was orange juice – 5 glasses of it. It did wash the breakfast (still with real chips, and baked beans) down very nicely.

We’d arranged for the airport taxi driver on our inward journey to pick us up to go back to the airport this morning. Remembering that we had the wheelchair as well as luggage, he turned up with a pick-up truck, which was a bonus.

It was a similar wheelchair experience at Roi Et, but just a little less formal. Toilet and coffee shop was a long way from the priority seating. However, one thing I saw at check-in that I’d never seen before was the hand baggage check. A thing I’ve noticed on many Air Asia flights is rather than paying for checked baggage, people turn up with multiple small bags, back packs, carrier bags etc., and they normally struggle on with ALL of their bags, when the rules clearly state just one small bag. People with just the one permitted bag (weight unknown) were let through with no problem. At Roi Et check-in, anybody with more than one cabin bag was made to put all of their cabin baggage on the scale, and they were charged excess baggage for everything over 7Kg. In my opinion, well done Air Asia, as people have been treating you as mugs.

An interesting observation on this flight was not the number of boxes of doughnuts, but the incredible number of ladies on the flight – I would guess 90%. Certainly, going back to when I used to do a lot of domestic flying, it was always a male dominated (business orientated) service. In fact, back in the early days, the check-in desks used to try to keep ladies with ladies.

When our plane arrived, I spotted a nice little touch by Air Asia that I’d never noticed before – 2 trollies full of umbrellas were wheeled out to protect arriving passengers from the sun (or rain I suppose) as they walked along the apron from the aircraft to the terminal building. The umbrellas were then wheeled to our exit to protect us from the sun on the walk to the aircraft. We didn’t take advantage. More importantly, they were not available when we arrived on Monday.

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A little helper came along to wheel my wife to the aircraft as a boarding priority, and we followed. First on the aircraft again.

I looked out of the window most of the way to Bangkok, interested to see the severe flooding that we’d been hearing about on the news, on the way. From up there, there was very little flooding to see. Yes, river banks had breached in a few places, but nothing like they have been saying on the news.

This was my wife’s second flying test in a week to assess any impact on her lungs with pressure changes. She passed with flying colours. When the flight was booked, it was to test her ability to fly to Laos in December. Unfortunately, she has had a replacement knee operation this week, so much of our travel plans for the rest of 2024 have been put on hold. The only other planned 2024 trip still taking place will be the dress rehearsal for the Royal Barge Parade in October. Hopefully, my wife will be strong enough to make the trip, but it is possibly the last such parade in my lifetime, and it is definitely a bucket list item. I will travel alone if necessary. Whale watching and slow boat down the Mekong have been put on hold until early next year.

It was a little bit different when we got to Bangkok. We were last off the aircraft, and the wheelchair was waiting at the bottom of the aircraft stairs. I had to carry the chair on to a very busy bus, but people did give up an already occupied priority seat on the bus for my wife.

I got the wheelchair off the bus, when a little helper came running across to collect us, and drive the wheelchair. We didn’t need him, but he had a job to do. He was actually quite helpful on our way to the taxi – picked up our luggage off the belt, and took us to the taxi collection point, where my name was displayed in HUGE letters. He then sat down and waited for our taxi with us, saying he was feeling lazy, and didn’t want to work. He wheeled my wife all the way to the taxi when it arrived.

Drive home was just under 3 hours, which considering the roadworks, was pretty good.

An excellent trip.

To be continued…………………………..

[Big Boy]

Part 10 (final)

Observations/Feelings about Roi Et

There’s a well known saying, “You can take the girl out of Isaan, but you’ll never take Isaan out of the girl.” How very true this is.

Roi Et must be the city in Isaan where I’ve noticed the most progress in the last 25 years (of course I hate Isaan, so I haven’t tried that many North Eastern cities in the last 25 years). The Roi Et I remember was truly horrible, but with one of the nicest parks I’ve seen in Thailand. Buildings were run down (many wooden), restaurants were roadside shacks, infested with rats and bugs, there weren’t any bars, in fact nightlife was non-existent. Hotel accommodation was very poor (I don’t think anywhere used to come close to a star rating except the Mai Tai, and even that would have been a risky 1 star). Toilets were mainly ‘squat’ type. Most of Roi Et closed by 8pm, etc., etc.

What a revelation the new Roi Et is. I will try to discuss the some of main improvements, and compare to Hua Hin, whenever possible in bullet points:

• Bueng Phlan Chai Park has always been a truly beautiful place, and there is an ongoing programme of constant improvement. Walking around this park was the main goal for this visit. We weren’t disappointed.

• So many new buildings have been built, and many are of high quality. Many of them purpose built on Green Field sites. What used to look more like a shanty town, now looks like quite a modern city. If you compare Roi Et’s new build to e.g. Soi 80 in Hua Hin. Most of the Soi 80 bars were once residential properties, and most definitely not designed as bars. Comparing Hua Hin bars with Roi Et bars is like comparing chalk and cheese.

• In the past, I rarely ate when in Isaan, because I was afraid of much of the food. Now there is an abundance of modern restaurants, both Thai and Farang. A lot of Western food was available, and, as I may have mentioned, the chefs have even learnt how to peel potatoes. I ate quite well in the couple of days – even piled on 2Kgs (since lost again). The food was well prepared and delicious. I didn’t see a rat all of the time I was away (actually, there was a roadside stall selling BBQ rat, but I didn’t bother trying it). There were even coffee shops – the last coffee I purchased 25 years ago in Roi Et was from a little cart alongside Bueng Phlan Chai Park. First sip was delicious, but then little black things started floating to the top. Ants!!! I thought that was only in my current hotel.

• Hotels. Ants aside (could happen in any Isaan hotel), our hotel was fantastic. This hotel wasn’t a one off – we were seeing really smart looking hotels all over the city. As I mentioned in Part 1, I have very vivid horrific memories of Roi Et’s hotels.

• Toilets. I used quite a few public loos whilst in Roi Et this time (must be an age thing). They were amongst the smartest, cleanest public loos I’ve encountered anywhere in the world, they smelt fresh, and they were free. They were spotless. There were a lot of them as well. Compared to Hua Hin, where outside of shopping malls a public loo is a rarity, the standard was most likely 500% better, and in Hua Hin you’d most likely be overcharged to use a very smelly place.

• Bars. We went to just one whilst away, and it was really smart, purpose built. A large Singha cost 67฿. This was the kind of bar where you’d most definitely be paying premium prices. However, we saw a lot of bars on many streets. Many purpose-built, and most looked a lot nicer than many in Hua Hin; especially if compared to Soi 80 or Binthablock. Obviously, quite a Thai clientele, but whereas in Hua Hin you might see customers buying a bottle of Sangsom, the tipple of choice in Roi Et was litre bottles of Johnny Walker Black. Many of the bars had live music also. The difference between the Roi Et and Hua Hin music scene is there were purpose built stages in Roi Et. The bar scene has really taken off in Roi Et.

• Night Clubs. Not far from our hotel, there was a street full of purpose-built night clubs. Yes, Hua Hin has night clubs, a couple purpose-built, but they are well scattered.

• Roi Et was basically alive until about 1am (at least, maybe later) these days.

I started this section by saying “You can take the girl out of Isaan, but you’ll never take Isaan out of the girl.” Roi Et no longer resembles an Isaan city, but the people and their ways are still very Isaan. We visited a relative’s house, and I watched as they prepared food – no way could I have eaten it. House furnishings were very sparse in quite a nice looking house. Food is eaten on the ground, and there are bugs everywhere.

I’ve always said I could never live in Isaan. With a few modifications, I actually believe I could live in modern Roi Et now. I’d need a modern house, and monthly visits by the exterminators, as we have in Hua Hin at the moment. The rest of Roi Et’s infrastructure seems perfect. It was even about 6C cooler than Hua Hin while we were there. However, many Farang moved to Isaan because it was cheaper. On our way back to Roi Et one afternoon, I noticed a fairly new housing complex, where prices were advertised as starting at ฿7.5M. They looked like nice properties, but I’m sure the same properties in Hua Hin would have been the same price or even cheaper. Even though Isaan is a lot more attractive now, there is no longer, in my opinion, any real estate advantage for Farangs moving there. General cost of living was still noticeably cheaper though.

Most definitely worth a visit.

I’ll be back after the final dress rehearsal of the Royal Barge Procession in October.

[pharvey]

Great report BB - very enjoyable.