This past weekend we flew to Ubon Ratchathani. Ubon is an Eastern province in Thailand, located in the area also referred to as Isarn. The province borders Laos and Cambodia.
This is a very poor part of the country. It is not an enormously popular tourist area. As one guide book stated, it lacks the beautiful natural scenery that you can find in so many parts of Thailand. Ubon was a stopping point for American airmen in the 60's and 70's, as it hosted U.S. Air Force base during the Vietnam War.
Tim's brother Top belongs to a religious group that was doing some work to help school children in the Ubon province. The group raised about $10K to buy desks, refrigerators, soccer balls, book bags, snacks, blankets, shoes and school supplies. Top invited us to go with them to Ubon in order to participate in a ceremony to give the gifts to the school. We agreed to go, and left Friday afternoon in order to see a bit more of the province. The flight was about an hour long. Many other group members took an eight hour bus ride.
By the time we arrived on Friday, it was already late afternoon. The kids swam in the hotel pool for a while, and then we went out to eat. The meal was pretty good and relatively cheap. I think the crab fried rice was perhaps the best fried rice that I have ever eaten. Our driver then took us to a bridge where we could see boats that were lit up on the river. Some boats used electric lights, while others had small torches that were lit on fire. The lights were shaped into religious and cultural scenes. People were also setting off firecrackers and bottle rockets. There were also some larger fireworks set off from boats on the river.
On Saturday we set off to see a national park that was the home to some ancient cave drawings. On our way, we stopped at an open-air store that sold gongs. We bought a small gong to take back with us. Scientists believe that the cave drawings were made approximately four thousand years ago. We had to walk about three or four kilometers to see them. It involved a fair bit of walking up and down uneven steps and terrain. The paintings were interesting, although not particularly awe inspiring.
The kids, however, were certainly inspired at our next stop on Saturday, where we visited some waterfalls. We had left the swimsuits in the car, so the kids stripped down to their underwear and played in the falls.
Saturday night we dined on a riverside restaurant where we could see Laos across the river. The restaurant specialized in fried fish caught from the river. I'll have to say that it was very good.
On Sunday, there was a ceremony at the school and temple to turn over the donations to the school and students. There were probably sixty or seventy people who had made the trip from Bangkok to participate in the ceremony. The focus of the ceremony was really the kids. The visiting kids who were presenting the donations and gifts, and the local children receiving them.
The ceremony started with the local students performed a traditional Thai dance. After that, the children formed two lines; one for the local children and one for the visiting children. The visiting children had the pleasure of handing the book bags, shoes, blankets and snacks to the local students.
After the school ceremony, we went to the local temple to participate in another ceremony and make a donation. A teenage boy let the ceremony. After that ceremony we had lunch.
As we had a few hours before our flight, we went with Top's wife and kids to another waterfall in the area. The place was an hour or two drive from the church. Although the road was paved, it was full of many large potholes. Tim quipped that if the Prime Minister had been from this province, that it would have smooth roads. This set of waterfalls was not as nice as the ones from the previous day. Still, the kids had fun.
While the trip was not the most exciting ever, it was actually nice. It was a great opportunity to talk to the kids about how lucky they are to have what they do. These local children were not receiving video games, Barbie dolls and expensive toys; no, they received blankets, shoes and book bags. When my daughter asked why the local children got snacks and she hadn't, my wife explained that those might be the only snacks those children received all year.
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