Road Trip From Khon Kaen To Roi-et

I am going to do a quick summary of a road trip I took yesterday with my brother-in-law, Em and his girlfriend, Ped to Roi-et for the Boon Phawate (Boon Phawade) Festival Parade.  Then, I will go into detail in future posts of the various places we toured.

Em invited me to his home town, Roi-et, to watch one of the bigger parades and partake in the Boon Phawate festival.  I readily accepted and he agreed to pick me up at 0900 on 5 March 2011.

My family members have learned that I am a stickler on time and when someone tells me 0900, he better be here on time.  Em arrived at 0845 and we were on the road 2 minutes later.

The only mistake that Em made, was he thought that the Boon Phawate Festival Parade began at 1100, but we found out it started at around 0900.  So, we were a little late to the festivities, but still got to see part of the parade.

Boon Phawate Festival Parade Participants

Some of the Boon Phawate Festival Parade participants had already completed their portion of the parade and were enjoying a traditional snack, kanom jin, which is given out for free at this festival – well free if you got there early enough – by noon it was all gone.

We managed to see the tail end of the parade and this provided a great opportunity for some photos and video.  At first, I tried to do both, but in the end handed off my camera to Em and he shot most of the parade photos while I took care of the video.  Em did a great job especially since I just handed him the camera and told him to shoot everything.

Boon Phawate Festival Parade Float

Since we only caught the end of the parade, it was time to move on across the street to Beung Palanchai.  This is a very nice park with a man-made lake.  Lots of places for kids to play and some exercise equipment.  The park was extremely clean even though there were oodles of people there to walk around and see the carved, Buddha statues.

Beung Palanchai Buddha Carvings

There is a small aquarium at the park, but the central, main tank was under repair so all we could see were the small tanks around the perimeter of the building.  It was air conditioned and provided a pleasant respite from the heat.

It was past noon and since we didn’t get any of the free food at the Boon Phawate Festival, we had to settle for food that cost some money.  We decided on BBQ chicken (gai yang) that automatically comes with sticky rice and somtam (spicy papaya salad).  Ped also ordered some pork rind chips and later we got some kanom Tokyo from a different vendor.  The kanom Tokyo was a new one for me and was very good.  A sweet, thin pastry with ground pork, hot dog, and other “stuff” inside for 10 baht.  Delicious.  215 baht for the BBQ chicken, rice and somtam along with water and coke,  and 50 baht for 5 kanom Tokyo’s.

Gai Yang - BBQ Chicken

I then thought we were heading back to Khon Kaen, and I was right, but I didn’t know that we were going to take the scenic route.  I love adventure and not knowing where I am going.  But, I trust Em and he knows what I like to see – so we were off.

First stop was Wat Pa Kung – Em told me that the same monk that oversaw the building of Phra Maha Chedi Chai Mongkol had this one built first.  A small, unique place that has the lowest ceilings inside that I have ever seen.  Lots of interesting paintings depicting Heaven and Hell.

Wat Pa Kung Buddhist Statues

Then it was off to the temple ruins at Ku Santarat in Maha Sarakham.  Em had already taken me to see the currently disputed Preah Vihear temple ruins on the Cambodian border about three years ago and knows that I am interested in visiting these kinds of places.

Temple Ruins at Pu Santarat Maha Sarakham

Next stop was at Phrathat Nadoon – a chedi in Maha Sarakham.  The grounds has one of the largest collections of gongs and bells that I have seen.

Phrathat Nadoon Maha Sarakham

Phrathat Nadoon Gongs Maha Sarakham

A few hundred meters and just down the road was a display of older Thai style houses.  This is some sort of botanical research area too.  No charge to go in and walk around and look at the older houses.

One more temple ruins in Maha Sarakham – Ku Ban Daeng.  These ruins date back to the 13th century.  This is small site on the side of the road and caught the attention of a couple of Buddhist monks too.

Ku Ban Daeng Temple Ruins

Buddhist Monks At Ku Ban Daeng Temple Ruins

We were all pretty tired by this time, so it was time to head directly back to Khon Kaen.  Traffic was so-so – not bad on the highway but slow going through the small towns along the way.  Being a Saturday in the late afternoon, lots of people out mainly shopping and some just cruising down the highway with all their belongings.

Overloaded Truck

And some seemed to be headed to the market or a backyard BBQ.

Oversized Pig

The journey to Roi-et for Boon Phawate turned out to be quite a day.  Despite missing a good part of the parade, we still managed to do quite a bit.  It was capped off with shrimp, BBQ, and cold beer when we got back to Khon Kaen.

Perhaps next year I will get the opportunity to see Boon Phawate again and I will make sure to be there early in the morning.

Tags: bbq boon phawade boon phawate chicken gai yang khon kaen khonkaen ku ban daeng ku santarat maha sarakham phrathat nadoom roi-et ruins shrimp temple thailand wat pa kung