Wat Phra Phutthabat

I have taken up weekly day trips around Saraburi on my motor bike. It is the best way to get around to where I want to go and it allows me to stop whenever want. The roads in Thailand are fairly good, however, that does not stop one from freaking out when they have cars zooming past them at easily 90 miles per hour. So you do what you can, move over to the left most lane and try to stay out of the way. Heading north in Saraburi it takes about ten minutes before you are literally thrown out of the city and in to the middle of the country side. A few small towns line the road here and there but for the most part it is open land, with massive clouds as far as you can see in each diection. The clouds eventually meet up with bright green grassland and rice fields that flourish in the Thai humidity and rain. The rice patties always have a patch of standing water showing faint reflections of the sky and palm trees that surround it. Imagine an endless green field filled with palm trees, tall grass, and scattered with mirrors.

 

      On this particular day I was heading with my housemate to the Wat Phra  Phutthabat, in order to see the famous Wat that houses one of the few legitimate footprints of the Buddha. It is one of the most religious places in Thailand and people often make pilgrimages from all over in order to see it. The ride there was no problem and upon turning on to the road that leads to the temple I could tell that we were two of only a few people that had decided to visit the temple that day. To have a place like this practically to ourselves was something pretty special.

      Like everywhere else in and around Saraburi the temple was not quite as grand as those in Bangkok and lacked any sort of massive golden statues. It was quiet and calm, kinda made you feel...well it made you feel whatever it is you call that feeling that creeps up inside of you when you step in to any place considered sacred. It is a sense of calm questing of who we are, what we are doing, and how we got here. Whatever the name is I was filled with this feeling as I walked about the temple grounds looking at the intricate architecture that has stood for almost 400 years. Perhaps this feeling can be attributed to the monastery next door from which one could hear the monotone chants of Buddhist Monks being projected over a loud speaker, or maybe it was the few people kneeling in intense prayer in front of the footprint, then again it could just have been the immaculate sunset that I was to see that day. Whatever it was it reminded me of being in the massive cathedrals of Ireland and the sense of reverence and spirituality that seem to permeate from them. Seemed to be another example of how alike we are as humans. I am on the opposite side of the planet in a very different place, where people are praying to a completely different god, but that sense of intense spirituality is still very much the same.

A typical street in Saraburi. Houses backed to openness.

Welcome to Saraburi

Well ladies and gentleman this is it. Saraburi in all it's mediocre glory. Sure it does not have the beaches of southern Thailand or even the mountains of the north, in fact there are little to no reasons for anyone that does not live here to visit. No fancy malls, grand palaces, or places to pet and see exotic animals. For all intensive purposes Saraburi contains zero tourist attractions. What it does have though is a large amount of middle class Thai people living day to day life the only way they know how .... simply Thai. That is to say Saraburi is filled with open air night markets and countless street vendors lining the streets day after day, rain or shine. Saraburi is the place to go if you to get away from the tourist industry in Thailand, a place to get a distinct, and sometimes offsetting, but more often refreshing, taste of what real life is like in Thailand. Not to say that the beaches of the south or mountains of the north are by any means fake Thailand, but they are heavily influenced by tourism and in most cases cater to the western traveler. Not the case in. Saraburi. Most people that live here have only seen a hand full of farangs, or western foreigners, and there is still a novelty involved in ever seeing one.

It is not possible to walk down the street in Saraburi without getting a few interested stares. Especially from children who honestly look at you like you were made of candy with their mouths half open and eyes wide, no one can stare like a little kid that is really probably seeing their first white person. To be honest people in Saraburi are fairly excited to see farangs do anything and smile and laugh when we attempt the simplest tasks. Who knew a white person could ride a motor bike or play soccer? I can't explain the looks I received the first day I walked on to the pool deck of the local swimming pool, lets just say everyone stopped what they were doing to check out how and what I would do when I jumped in. Now this probably sounds less than fun always being stared at like some sort of zoo exhibit, but that is just it, they stare until the realize you are just like them, which takes about two weeks, and then they become some of the warmest and most accommodating. people I have ever come across. In the south and the north a white person is a tourist passing through, more of a something than a someone, and this is true of all tourist areas it seems you become a walking currency symbol.

There are few to zero tourists in Saraburi on any given day, maybe catching a bus or a train. It is when you stick around here for more then a week that you are treated like a member of the family. The staring does not stop, nor does the amazement that you know how ask for a piece of chicken, or say correctly and pay 25 baht, and how could it untill you have met all 600,000 people that live in Saraburi. You will still get the stairs, giggles, and simles but they are friendly and warm and mean little more than that there is a language barrier that can only be broken by well smiling and giggling.

This picture is what you would see entering. Saraburi. from Bangkok. The off ramp turns straight in to the main street that goes through the city and cuts it in half. It is small and simple but if you know where to look Saraburi is that hidden gem that most people never find when they travel. It is about an hour and a half from Bangkok, so far enough from the main city to get away from the hustle a bustle of city life, but close enough that you are not living in a bamboo hut showering only when it rains. It takes about twenty minutes to drive from one side of the city to the other and in every directions is beautiful countryside. Much of it farmland used for rice, raising cattle, and chickens. On that note very quickly who knew best fried chicken on the entire planet is made in Thailand, the best I have ever had at least .... by far. The two ladies that make it set up their stand on the street heading from the main street to my house and the fact that their chicken is amazing and they never stop smiling makes it tough to walk past everyday without stopping. Just one of the many examples of what makes Saraburi special, more of which I hope to share while I am here.

This is the street that takes me home every day. The red busses are the city busses and the white one is an ambulance heading back to the hospital which is just outside of this picture. Yes, there are that many motor bikes parked on this street at most times.

This is the outside market that takes place every other day and is about a ten minute walk from my house. I recently found a guy that steams whole redfish and puts them in to a kind of spicy salad. Delicious and supposedly he catches them an hour or two before the market opens.