Abe and Pon picked us up at about 10 am. We drove about 40 minutes out of town to a major temple (a temple is called a Wat). The magnitude of the architecture and care given to maintaining the temples is amazing.
We also went to see Khao (Mount) Chichan's engraved Buddha image. There is a 130 meter high and 70 meter wide image of Buddha etched into the side of a mountain and outlined in real gold. This is a Buddhist sacred object, built in 1964 and is the largest effigy of its kind. Quite an amazing sight. The grounds are guarded by the Thai military.
We then went to Silver Lake, the only vineyard in this region. The owner is/was a Thai movie star who has been developing the land for about 20 years now and besides the vineyards, has completed a very upscale restaurant with an Italian vibe to it. Abe ordered us up a fabulous meal (lots of seafood) and the local wine was very good.
On the way back, we drove to a small road-side fruit stand known to Abe and Pon, and bought 10 kilos of pineapples for about $2 and a few coconuts They are the best we have ever tasted! The coconut is not like we see in our stores - those are old and dried out. Here, you can buy coconuts just about anywhere & people eat them when they're still green & smooth on the outside. The "milk" inside is actually very nice and the flesh is soft and creamy - you just scoop it out with a spoon.
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| Swim, little turtle - you're free! |
On to another temple which was still under construction. At this temple Pon told us of the Thai tradition of liberating animals or birds (for a fee) which they believe brings you specific good fortune, depending on what it is you're liberating/returning to the earth. Sounds like a tourist scam but Pon told me that she and her mother both practice this as often as they can afford. Pon does it about once a month. We chose a turtle (the fee is about $3), took it down to a nearby stream, lit some incense, repeated the words we were given then released the turtle into the stream. This stream was a short walk from the temple grounds. We were very surprised to see that a family lived right next to the spot where we were. The "house" was fairly rudimentary at best with several mangey dogs lying around (Buddhists do not kill any living thing so no matter how sick an animal might be they will not harm it) .
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| Area we walked thru to stream, beside Thai family home in the bush. |
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