April 22, 2016
Tha Uten to Nakhom Phanom
Today was planned to be a very short day. Less than 30 kms alhtough it ended up being a bit more because we had a few dead-ends when trying to hug the river between Tha Uten and Nakhom Phanom. We did get to see the Third Friendship Bridge.
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Nakhom Phanom has no shortage of accomodation, The first two places we looked at were both very modern and clean and seriously well priced at 400 baht. The problem was, with this being a short day, they weren't going to let us book in before midday and it wasn't even 10 o'clock yet. We cycled around a bit, mainly to find a pharmacy so we could by some aspirin, and settled on the Pawan Hotel, also modern, clean and 400 baht but they were happy to take immediately and, without prompting, told us we could put the bicycles in the room if we wanted to. The name is only in Thai script, but we know what the script is for "rongram", the Thai word for hotel. The name Pawan was picked up from the wifi connection.
Many people feel the need to travel because they are "in a rut". Ironically, getting into a groove is important for successful travelling. One rut we are happily in is doing our laundry as soon as we have arrived at our accomodation. Very important when travelling with just three shirts, three pairs of trousers and three pairs of knickers.
From the mid 19th century and into the 20th century, Thailand's Isaan provinces received an influx of Vietnamese refugees fleeing the first hand of the French imperialists as they established what became known as French Indochina and then the Viet Cong as it stepped up its resistance to the imperialists.
QUOTE src=http://www.cpamedia.com/article.php… These first Vietnamese migrants - calling themselves Viet Kieu, or "Overseas Vietnamese" - settled in Ubon Ratchathani, Nakhon Phanom and Sakon Nakhon, away from their French overlords, but close enough to their Indochinese homeland to be able to foment revolt. This was the beginning of the Vietnamese nationalist movement, which was observed by the Thais with profound mistrust.
Subsequently, in 1946, a renewed wave of Viet Kieu migrants sought refuge in Thailand following the Second World War, the re-imposition of French authority over Indochina in 1946, and the establishment of a communist regime in Hanoi in 1952. During these years an estimated 50,000 Vietnamese crossed the Mekong, seeking shelter in Thailand's broad north-east. Like earlier Viet migrants, they settled mainly by the Mekong, in Udon Thani, Nong Khai, Sakon Nakhon, Nakhon Phanom, and Ubon Ratchathani. Today these provinces, together with the recently constituted province of Mukdahan, still form the main centres of Vietnamese settlement in Thailand. UNQUOTE
Many of these later immigrants were Roman Catholics and the presence of a RC church in the Isaan is apparantly as strong a sign of a Vietnamese community as a sight of the well known Vietnamese limpid-shaped hat.
We spent some time at the St Anna RC Church in Nakhon Phanom this afternoon. A young nun, seeing us peering through the windows into the locked church, which is part of a large convent complex, kindly unlocked one of the doors to let us in.
The bell outside, clearly much older than the church building, reminded me of reading about the Vietnamese RC community that had dragged their church bell, that had been cast in France in the 19th century, over Laos and eventually the Mekhong to where they settled in Tha Uten (where we spent last night).
Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,785 km (1,108 miles)
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