Friday, October 26, 2007

Sawadee Nong Bua Lam Phu Thailand


Build Friendship Bridge From Your Heart( Written by Bjorn from Norway )

These words you are reading right now is actual written sitting inside a tin can ten thousand meters above ground rushing foreward in a speed of more than eight hundred kilometer per hour! How much more extreme human existence can you imagine? But, nevertheless, it is in extreme artificial environment like this the reality, the beauty, the value of life becomes real, becomes alive, isn´t it? It is in your troubled hours you long back, you remember clearest the beauty of everyday life. It is in your most extreme situation the glory of an everyday-sunrise stands as the ultimate proof that you are alive, that you are living, isn´t it? At least it is that for me, I guess it is that for you too!

So let me tell you my story of every day life, let me tell you my story of every days value. I have no clue who you are, where you are or what you are doing, all I know is where I have been and what I have been doing. And coincidences in life (somebody prefer to call it that, I don´t know any more), but coincidences in life lead me to Nong Bua Lam Phu. A small unimportant, unpretentious town of the vast Issan-plateau in the northeast of Thailand. A small town who have seen the most and takes the most with the same pragmatic tranquility.


Nong Bua Lam Phu, The Lake Near The Mountain Where The Lotus-Flower Bloomes. Pure poetry in the name itself, and pure poetry you will find in the change between fertile marshland where rice-fields have their domain, dry mountain-steeps where snakes prevails or the busy paved streets.Calm and unpretentious she is lying there. In the out-skirt, of course. In the "boon-docks" with its drawbacks and its advantages. Most advantages, thou. Drawbacks like that greedy Bangkok sucks in most of the cake, but she takes that too with thousands of years of pragmatic patience. She once in a while glance towards that so-called modern lifestyle in Bangkok and elsewhere, but mostly she is preoccupied with fishing, the state of the rice-fields, newborn and the neighbors kidney-disfunction. (She needs a new kidney! I wonder where she will find one! We must help her.) Life is living in Nong Bua Lam Phu, important life is living, life worth while listen to is living in Nong Bua Lam Phu. Life is also glancing at the outside world with old, vise eyes.

In ancient Thailand, far away from busy Bangkok the real thai pulse beats slowly, rhythmic, strong. She does not flash her luxury here, Thailand, but she possesses a tranquility, a continuity, a fortune a western Farang only can observe and envy. Her values are not placed in gadgets, you will find out that pretty soon. She drives her little motorcycle. Her house is small, that is if she has a house. Maybe she lives with her old mother, carries burdens a Westerner only can admire, wonder about.And where does she get the strength from ?And in between every-day duties, where does she get the smiles from? Where does she gets all the smiles from? And don´t let yourself be carried away by other western visitors. You have heard that Thailand only smiles with her mouth! They say that Thailand never let the smile reach her eyes! Don´t let yourself be dictated by other visitors, her smile reaches her eyes, believe me! Actually, her smile starts in her eyes. ”Sawadika” she says, bows her neck gracefully over her palms, looks down. She greets you welcome, asks you in as her guest.

Maybe Bangkok is different? Maybe you gets out of your plane slightly jetlaged, let yourself be driven to your hotel by a servile taxi-driver. Maybe you are checking into the hotel, gets your room, sleeps uneasy in a too hard bed with your biological clock totally crazy. Maybe you awake the next morning far to early to an annoying insisting rooster located just outside your bedroom window. I guess you have a shower, get yourself dressed, walks downstairs where you are served an american-inspired breakfast on the hotel patio. Maybe you toss a few bath to the waiter before you strolls along the sidewalk. I guess you are in Coa Sarn Road. That is were everything is happening, right! So, strolling along Cao Sarn you let your self be admired by unnumerous street-salesmen. I guess you nod a bit condescending to too-many, too-insisting salesmen selling all kinds of junk. I guess you will unconscious let yourself be admired by salespersons in the streets with all that junk hanging around their necks. And unconscious you will flatter yourself in the attention Bangkok gives you! Back home, maybe you comes from a city in Europe, maybe back home your life in featureless, gray? So it is nice, isn´t is, once to be given a bit attention. And some you have read before you left, and some have you been told about greedy, money-thirsty people, right? And about how everything revolves around money. Maybe you have talked to Chris? You know the american who has been visiting Thailand a dozen of times before. He who can tell you how Thailand is dependent upon tourism. He who can tell you that really it is the west that keeps Thailand on her feet. He who can tell you with not a shred of doubt in his voice that it is USA that really keeps Thailand alive! And I guess you will believe him. Something else will of course be stupid taken into account how many times Chris has visited Thailand! But back away a little. Tourism is just a pimple on Thailands but she would have survived. Have no doubt.

But get out of Bangkok, go north as I did. You will always find a bus, a train, a plane. To northeast to be precise. Go to Nong Bua Lam Phu as I did. Not much of a place, I know that, not compared with Udon Thani or Khon Kaen and not to forget Bangkok, but still big enough. What is more important is that Thailand has preserved her identity there. The Lotus-flower lifts her stem high up from the many ponds and backwaters in the rivers there. The rice-fields lives their lives through the year. It is a time for everything. And it is there you will find her sincerity. She is polite, you see. She has seen Westerners aggression before, Easterners too for that matter. She is a bit uncomfortable with the aggression, the unpatience, the rush, but most she is embarrassed. She questions silently the blind chase after gold and excess luxury, but mostly she is polite. So give her space, Nong Bua Lam Phu, and she will show you the value of a rice-field. Give her time and she will explain to you the cows life-philosophy. Give her your attention and she will take you on a culinary travel you late will forget. But you have to give her time. You have to stay long and the countryside will fill you. You have to give yourself a way to a Bhuddistic time. Let your mind at peace, let your body rest. Forget the wests chase for luxury and status. What is more important is the togetherness, the good conversation, the eye-contacts, the friendships. Thai language, Issan-language is unaccessible, strange, complicated, but take your time with the language also. You will learn a little every day. And your stumble efforts will be valued regardless of how wrong your pronunciation is. I only visited Nong Bua Lam Phu for some small weeks, what do I know, but I sense something of value, great value.

And behind all this the crickets keep on singing.

My Hometown Nong Bua Lam Phu

" The Land of Happiness and Peace " was once called
" Nakhonkhuenkhan Kabkaewbuaban "

Nong Bua Lam Phu is the latest established province separated from Udon Thani in 1993. It became the 76th province of Thailand .It’s in the Northeastern part of Thailand surrounded by Udonthani province to the North and the East, by Khon Khaen province to the South, and by Loei province to the West.Nong Bua means “ Lotus pond ”
Lam Phu means “ Long range mountain ”
The lotus pond is located in the middle of town and you can see the mountain chain stretching from north to south as the background which makes Nong Bua Lam Phu a beautiful lakeside scenery of all.

History

Nong Bua Lam Phu has a long and interesting history about 900 years back. The area was first known as Nong Bua Lam Phu Kabkaewbuaban and was a protectorate territory of Krungsrisatana ( Laos nowadays).

In 1574 the Thai King Maha-dharmaracha and his son (later to become King Naresuan) led a military expedition to invade Lan Chang ( Laos nowadays). Along the way, King Naresuan chose the area around Nongbua Reservoir as a place to rest his troops and prepare for the invasion of Laos. It was here that King Naresuan fell ill from small pox and had to return to Ayutthaya. A shrine was built in his honor at Nong Bua Reservoir to commemorate the campaign and it has become an historical site.

In 1767, two brothers named Phra Woa and Phra Ta, who lived in Vien Tiane, Laos, gathered their followers and fled the country. They came to Thailand and established a fort at Nong Bua Lam Phu which became known as 'Phra Woa-Phra Ta Camp'. Shortly thereafter, troops from Vien Tiane invade Nong Bua Lam Phu remained uninhabited for years. However, remnants of the stone wall surrounding Phra War Phra Ta Camp remain and can still be seen today.

In 1895, during the reign of King Rama III of Ratanakosin, the governor of Nong Khai Province appointed Phrawichay adomkamutaket to rebuild and resettle Nakhonkhuenkhan Kabkaewbuaban and the city's name was changed to "Munag Kamutsaiburiram"

In 1906, King Rama V appointed Phra Wicharnkamutkit to the governorship of the new city and changed its name to "Muang Nong Bua Lam Phu"

In 1907 Nong Bua Lam Phu became a district of Udon Thani province. Udon Thani was a large province with a population of over one million people. In accordance with the federal government's decentralization policy to promote better public service through more localization of government, the province of Udon Thani was separated into two provinces.

And it became Nong Bua Lam Phu Province on December 1, 1993.
( Provided by Tourism Authority of Thailand )

Wednesday, October 24, 2007