hi ho, hi ho, it's off to ubon we go!

Two weekends ago, I went on a weekend adventure to the nearby province called Ubon Ratchathani for the long weekend. We had four days off from work because of two Buddhist holidays. After arriving in Ubon, we checked into the Huaymuang Apartments and went to find Mexican food. Can you say excited?

where we stayed in Ubon 

chips and salsa. hold the chips

my cheesy, chicken quesadilla!

One thing about Thailand is that there are dogs everywhere. Some of them more approachable than others. Here are two examples:

approachable dog

not so approachable dog with a crooked jaw, underbite, and tongue that doesn't retract

sure was sweet though!

After Mexican food, we ventured to find the weekend festivities and found some interesting things along the way.

uh.... seriously?? haha can't escape it

a cool bar we hung out in for a bit to listen to music

the lovely ladies i spent the weekend with

In Thailand, if there is a holiday on Saturday, then you get Monday off because you did not get to miss a day of work for the holiday (America should adapt this!) The holiday on Friday was Asahara Bucha day, which is the day that Buddha announced his dharma and teachings for the first time. It marks the second day of Buddhist lent and the monks go into the temples for three months during the rainy season. People take food and candles to the monks to help provide them with supplies for the three months in the temple. The history of this is that the monks travel around the country to give blessings and share teachings to the Thai, but many years ago, it is believed that the monks stepped on the crops during rainy season and destroyed the crops. For the holiday, each temple in Ubon makes a wax float that they display in the parade. This festival occurs all over Thailand, but the largest one is in Ubon. The following pictures are the result of the celebration festivities for the holiday!

what happens when you ask someone to take your picture. they hand

the camera to their friend and join in the picture

the parade the next morning 

people from all over thailand come to ubon for this parade 

in between the floats, there were dancers and singers

singers on a float

the boys are also encouraged to dress up and dance 

wax candle float

the thai dancers in their traditional isaan style dress

halfie with a wax float because why not

the thai version of a kubota (there are kubota stores everywhere)

girls from a local school 

reppin' the u from abroad

where we had dinner. yummy pizza, lasagne, salad, and 2 for 1 drinks

the wall art in the place we had dinner

After we celebrated at the parade and enjoyed some wonderful, cheesy western food, we caught a van to a nearby, small town, called Khong Chiam. 

making friends in the van

Once we arrived in Khong Chiam, we walked down the street to find a place to stay for the evening. We came across a small placed called Sabae Guest House. A very nice, older couple greeted us and checked the five of us into one room. When in Thailand.... Apparently it's totally normal for five people to share one room. She didn't even ask us if we wanted two rooms. This is what it looked like and how we slept.

5 girls, 4 of us under 5'2". why not sleep sideways? 

(bianca got the twin bed you can kind of see)

we enjoyed the lime green curtains

Khong Chiam is on the tourist destination list because it is known for being the eastern most part of Thailand. This is important to the Thai because it is the first place in Thailand that sees the sun each morning. It is also the place where two rivers, that are two different colors, come together. Because it is the rainy season, it is harder to see the two colors, but you can still see where they mix together. The river bordering Laos (the one that flows through where I live in Mukdahan) is the Mekhong River and the other river that flows East is the Mun River. We took a small boat out onto the river to see the two colors. 

out on the boat

our river guide there on the end

the blue color is the mun river and the brown color is the mekhon river

blue and brown colors mixing

guess you can fall in love here?

We walked down the road from the rivers to check out the small town. We stopped to use the bathroom in a small shop across the street from the post office. There was a family sitting under the awning outside the post office drinking at 3:30 in the afternoon because this is Thailand and that's what you do. The family invited us over for a drink, so we walked over to join them. They were all very nice and friendly. The mother in the family was wonderful and gave us all Thai nicknames. The name she gave me sounds like chop baa, which in English is the hibiscus flower. I found this pretty amazing since that's my mom's favourite and one of mine as well. We have always talked about them and my mom has been trying to grow one for many years. Funny how things come together. Here's a picture of the family and us with the lady who gave us Thai names. 

After a whiskey and soda, we wandered down the road to find the local temple. We stopped at the tiny shack with the chair outside it that was the bus station and asked the gentleman sitting in the chair how to get to the temple. He pointed at a small trail leading up the hill across the street. So, we followed the trail up the hill and into the trees and found the temple. Who knew? This temple was really beautiful and probably one of my favourite ones here in Thailand. Best part of all the temples? The serenity that follows you in and out of the temple.

We walked back to the guest house, relaxed, and then found some dinner. We turned in early (all snuggled in together) so we could wake up early the next morning for the sunrise. We wanted to see the first light that came over Thailand. 4:30 came bright and early and as usual, it was pouring rain. We waited 15 minutes and the rain stopped. It was a little cloudy when the sun came up, but we still got to see the sunrise.

After the sun rose, we got some coffee and breakfast and caught a songthao to Phibun. Then I got on a van back to Ubon and another van back to Mukdahan. 

what a typical bus station looks like in thailand 

Along the way back to Mukdahan, there are a lot of rice fields that look like this one. It would be interesting to spend the day in the rice fields, but talk about hard work

The trip to Ubon and to Khong Chiam was one of my favourite weekends thus far in Thailand. It was really cool and fun to be able to get to experience more of the cultural things going on in Thailand.