Going East, Ubon Bound!
Just before Songkran we went on a short trip to Esaan!
End destination for 1 day was going to be: Ubon Ratchathani.
At a revamped Don Meuang we caught a flight with an improved version of the above aircraft.
After checking in and dumping our luggage in our hotel rooms we went for a walk and as you can see Ubon had a lot of intoxicating promise!
I wouldn't call this art but it's funny enough on its own.
The blistering heat (41+ Celcius) quickly let us start looking for a place to eat.
MitSamPan MeatBall serves excellent food and has been doing this for more than 70 years!
Refreshed and feeling better we continued exploring and bumped into Thung Sri Mueang.
Some details of this monument were a bit macabre, to put it mildly...
This elegant wooden building is Wat Thung Si Mueang's wooden Tripitaka Library (Ho Trai), designed to sit on stilts in the middle of the pool to protect the materials from insects (ants and termites).
Wat Thung Si Mueang consists of several buildings in the temple's compound.
This temple dog found a way to escape from the heat...
Wat Chaeng dates from 1888.
I really liked the Naga-style decorations.
The crocodile stucco at the front staircase was in poor condition.
We stopped at SongSarn (ส่งสาร) Coffee & Home Roaster for a refill.
As well as admiring the street art.
Some street art seemed a bit out of place...
This friendly local gave us some directions.
Monks at Wat Luang were busy releasing fish in the Moon River.
We ended the day with some pretty decent food at a night market before heading back to our hotel.
I could see myself returning to Ubon one day, but preferably in a cooler season!
I recall you, Tim and I have been here before, at the start of a trip into the hills and waterfalls of Laos. The extreme heat continues, with 40+ temp expected each day for at least a couple more weeks. A nice photo essay, KK.