Northward Ho!

After prying myself from the enticing clutches of Bangkok, I hopped on a train with a second class ticket to an adorable town called Nong Khai just south of the Laos border. So I got a pretty decent nights sleep heading north on the express train, with the only interruptions coming from a boisterous card game played by a crew of rowdy Canadians who would pause frequently to launch into another tirade about "those Damned Americans"! This came as quite an eye opener as to how tarnished the reputation of our great nation has become. I hope that by acting with conscious integrity and nobility as an emissary of the US, that I can do my small part to repair the wounds.


So after getting out of the station, I was quickly herded into the dumptruck of all tuk-tuks (really just a bicycle with a large engine and a flatbed attached into which was piles 9 adults and kids!). I got out at this gorgeous resort/scantuary of a backpackers lodge, complete with banana trees, friendly cats, bikes for rent, and an amazing view of the Mekong river vista. There was a whole crew of Calafornian students staying here on a semester abroad at the university nearby.


I rented a bike and took it out thru the town and across the lush country side to the site of an amazing sculpture park where a Laoatian man had gathered an enormous collection of Buddhist statues -- many of which were 50+ feet tall!! There was a wheel of life showing the cycles from birth to growth, industry, death, and transformation, etc. all thru symbology of sculpture. Lots lots more -- quite profound. I got a lot out of the sculpture below of the noble elephant being hounded by the swarm of jackals (something like Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged?)


You can see my full depiction of Salakeoku and the wheel of life at this blog