On our last day in Nong Khai, we took a sang-thaew (basically a gutted pick up truck with benches in the back) out to Sala Kaew Koo, an amazing sculpture garden ceated by an artist who has a bit of his own mythology. The sculptures were enormous, made out of concrete, and depicted scenes from Hinduism and Buddhism.

The sculpture park was set amongst tons of trees and flowers, so it was really a treat for the eyes to see the contrast between the concrete sculptures beset with a black mold common in Laos and the bright pink and red flowers. One Canadian we talked to described it as "Buddhism meets Disneyland". He was pretty accurate.

Our driver almost took off without me, banged Bev's head when he went over a bump heading into the park, and then left the brakes off and almost ran me over when we parked. Needless to say, we would have liked to say goodbye, but since we were pretty far out and he was the only guy there, we were stuck with him. He did buy us water at the park, though, which most probably means we severely overpaid. If I could only speak Thai during these negotiations!

Back to the park…there's an interesting story about how the sculptures came to be. The artist, a mystic named Luang Pa Bunleua Sulilat, apparently fell into a ditch when he was a child, met a spiritual advisor who taught him about art and the underworld, and was inspired to create the sculptures based on those teachings. He actually created a similar site in Laos, but after he was kicked out by the government, he set up shop in Thailand.

There are both Buddhist and Hindu influences (note the Ganesha and Hanuman - thanks for the Hindu lessons in India, Naresh!), along with some Confucian ideologies. In addition to enormous Buddhas, nagas, and other creatures, he also sculpted his interpretation of the wheel of life. We walked through a concrete womb-shaped tunnel to walk around and observe the wheel of life sculptures, which started with a fetus and worked its way around until old age, death, and man moving towards Buddha and nirvana. It was really cool.

We could have spent longer at the park (who knew it would be that cool?), but we had to get back to catch a bus.

Next Stop, Vientiane, Laos!