And on that border at the river are quite a few interesting things to see!
We picked up our car rental at JayJay Car Rental Ubon. It's some kind of Suzuki. It's got about 90,000 kms (56,000 miles) on it, and a few dings and marks... but that's fine. It's nice and clean and seems to drive well. And I was surprised that it was automatic transmission! At least I don't have to bother with shifting gears with my left hand. Not that it really would have made any difference! I've driven so many different vehicles in different countries on both sides of the road and with steering wheels on both sides of the vehicle... it really doesn't matter. I just hop in and go.
Our little rental car in Thailand.
800 baht ($22.90 USD, $30.60 CAD) per day total including insurance.
And the very first thing I did as we were exiting the parking lot was to put the windshield wipers on. Why? Because on a right hand drive vehicle, the wiper switch and turn signal switch are on the reverse side of the steering wheel... so by habit, I used the left switch to signal my turn onto the road... and of course the wipers came on!
From there, the car rental place, our first stop was breakfast. Yes, back at the Big Ubon Breakfast place. Great food!
Big bowl of porridge with fresh fruit and yogurt.
115 baht ($3.30 USD, $4.40 CAD) each.
Then we hit the road heading east towards the Mekong River. We took a secondary road, but it was busier than I expected it to be. Lots of scooter traffic as obstacles! Not really anything photo worthy along the way. Our first stop was a viewpoint overlooking the Mun River...
From there, we drove to the village of Khong Chiam. This location is famous because it is where the Mekong River and the Mun River meet. The Mekong is quite clear, and the Mun is very muddy, so the area where they meet is very distinct.
Scenery along the way.
We got sidetracked by a temple and a giant gong!
The largest temple gong in the world.
Wat Tham Khuha Sawan.
Click on the photo to make it full screen, then click again to zoom in on the detail of the dragons behind the Buddha.
Looking across the Mekong River towards Laos.
Elephant statue.
Buddhas under a rock overhang.
Another part of the temple.
Normally there is a sign that says "no dogs allowed", but not at this temple.
We made it to the village of Khong Chiam and parked near a pathway along the river. A lot of restaurants along the pathway, but most of them closed. Not many people around, but we can see where it's probably busy on the weekends. There are boats that will take you across the river to Laos, but no immigration and you are only supposed to go to the market on the opposite side.
The sign above just tells the name of the municipality.
Where the rivers meet is very distinct.
Looking north up the Mekong River.
Thailand on the left, Laos on the right.
From there, we hopped back in the car and drove a bit further north. I had several viewpoints, caves, and waterfalls pinned on my map. One of them mentioned ancient rock paintings, and we headed there. Really, I hadn't done much in the way of researching, just saw these mentioned on the map as possible stops. Anyhow, the rock paintings were located in Pha Taem National Park, and we had to pay 430 baht ($12.30 USD, $16.50 CAD) in total entrance fees, which we hadn't planned on. We like the national parks, but we don't like that foreigners pay about ten times more than locals to get in! It turned out to be worth it though...
Entrance to the national park.
Standing on top of the cliff.
Thailand is pretty flat in this area!
Just across the river, Laos is more hilly.
Me, and the view.
It was about 1:15pm and 33C (91F). There is a 4 km hiking trail that goes along where the rock paintings are. We had lots of water with us, so decided to go for it. We were the only ones we saw on the trail except for a couple of workers.
This rock overhang was very cool!
The trail goes down below the cliff face.
There are four different areas to view the paintings.
Estimated to be between 3,000 to 4,000 years old.
One mural of paintings runs for 180 meters!
They were only discovered in 1981.
Ruth on the trail.
The trail itself was actually kind of fun!
With a couple more viewpoints along the way.
Looking south.
Laos on the left, Thailand on the right.
Because of the heat, after 4 kms we were done! Very hot and sweaty! The 4th section of paintings was closed off, and we didn't mind. We don't normally like air conditioning, but it sure did feel refreshing to get back in the car. Not bad sitting in the shade relaxing when it's 33C, but it's pretty darn warm to be out hiking!
There were a couple more attractions in the park we wanted to see. One was a waterfall.
Only 250 meters in?
But apparently nobody goes to this waterfall. The trail is obviously not well used. And we found out why... there was no water!
Maybe there is only water during rainy season.
Ruth on the other side.
Being suckers for punishment, we continued on because there was some kind of mushroom rock mentioned on my map... oh well, only another half a kilometer. Besides, we needed the exercise, as we always tell ourselves!
Further on, we made one more stop at more mushroom rocks. Fortunately, these ones were right beside the road!
Wow! Very cool!
Ruth, and the mushroom rocks.
There was still more we wanted to see, but with almost an hour and a half to drive back to the city, we headed home. As it was, we got there just before dark and I really don't want to be driving at night.
We found a local spot for dinner.
60 baht ($1.70 USD, $2.30 CAD) each.
We've only got the car rental for two days, so we are off exploring again today!
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MasterCanopy Screenhouse Shelter. On sale, and there is a 40% off coupon showing!
And in Canada...
Wow, super cheap dinner and looked tasty, though not a lot of food for how much you hiked! I love the mushroom rocks but even more, the dog in the temple. I bet that tile floor felt cool compared to the heat outside. Cool river confluence as well!
ReplyDeleteThe picture makes the plate/dish of food look small but I thought it was enough food, Kevin could maybe have used a bigger portion size, we did feel satisfied though especially because we were starved by the time we sat down to dinner.
DeleteI said the same thing about the dog being smart, lying on the tile floor in the shade. I remember Whiskey doing the same thing when we had a house and it was hot outside.
We love seeing two rivers meet like that, especially when the rivers are two different colours. I think that is our fourth time seeing something like that now.