Oh, where to start! This is what happens when I go away for a weekend and don't bring my laptop. I end up having a ridiculous amount of info in my head and not enough 'interesting writing space' time to put it down. I run the risk of entering the 'long and boring' genre of blogs. I will try to keep it short and to the point ... for most of it anyway.
So, with the long weekend here in Thailand we decided to make the best of the Monday off, and on Saturday morning myself and 7 other girls made our way from our different towns to the large city of Ubon Ratchatani (or just Ubon to us westerners who have a slight fit trying to pronounce it correctly). We spent our Saturday bumming on rickety buses and trains, followed by looking at a few local temples, the odd shrine to the King, and finding food. My night was made by the stand in the market across from our hotel which served sandwiches. I am talking about bread rolls, egg, chicken, beansprouts and sauce. If I believed in a heaven, I would have been convinced I had died and gone to it.
Sunday came and we spent the day doing the cultural sightseeing thing, feeling like the typical tourist. We hired a minibus between us (6 euro per person for the whole day. Cannot go wrong) and we headed into Ubon' national park, which is massive! I was extremely proud of myself, as I am someone who does not dispute the fact that I am incredibly unfit, and yet I found myself climbing up and down hundreds of steps, metres of mountainsides and up and over rocks in 38 degrees. I will admit, I was slightly put off my how easy the Thai people found it all, but I am a Farang and therefore can partly blame the heat ....
Within this park we took in the sights of 180 million year old rock formations, incredible cliff and mountain-top views of Laos, a beautiful waterfall, and most importantly, cave paintings.
Personally I was interested in the waterfall originally, but when I saw these paintings I was literally stunned. These date 3000-4000 years before history was first recorded, and consist of cliff walls of red paintings of what look like whales, mammoths, and strange human-like figures. The most amazing thing for me was the hands. These people, who we would consider prehistoric cave men who were primitive in thinking and are only interested in food, territory and procreation, had printed their own hands onto this wall so that they left a bit of themselves on the world. Even at that early stage of life, before art was for going against the government or to express deep feelings, it was used to do what each person in the world wants to do; make a mark that can be seen after you leave. Whether its 'Claire woz ere' on the back of a toilet door or even something as common as having children, the paintings just showed that people have always had the desire to leave something behind, something to say they were on the world and did something with their lives. I thought it was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.
Overall, although so tiring, going to Ubon was one of the best things I have done so far in Thailand. I rediscovered my love of history, I got a bit of exercise, and ate the first sandwich I have had in nearly 10 weeks. Not a bad way to spend a long weekend.
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