Word: luang
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...night of the full moon at the end of the Buddhist Lent for as long as anyone can remember. "I've seen them since I was a little girl," says Pang Butamee, 70, who lives in a flood-prone hut on the river's edge. Nearby is Wat Paa Luang?an elegant, 450-year-old temple and one of the most popular spots to watch the fireballs. "I've seen them come up from the river, and also from canals and dams," she claims. "My mother and father saw them, and their mothers and fathers. And I've seen...
...fireballs, however, are a hoax, it is one conceived and perpetuated on a grand scale. According to Phrakhru Pichai Kitjaton, abbot of Wat Paa Luang, the temple houses written records of monks witnessing fireballs hundreds of years ago. And each year, anything from 200 to 800 of the fiery orbs are sighted along a 100-kilometer stretch of the river. "Are they real? Does it matter? Faith is the thing," he says, with a Mona Lisa smile...
...might be right. Within 15 minutes of my first fireball sighting, thunderhead clouds that had been threatening ominously suddenly bore down with full force. The heavens opened, and fierce gusts of wind turned the rain horizontal. At Wat Paa Luang, the fireballs were forgotten in the stampede for shelter. A soaked mass of humanity huddled under flapping tents, as the booms and bangs and drawn-out rumbles of the tempest sounded more and more like the admonitions of an irate demigod...
This month Bangkok Airways is launching its Mekong World Heritage Tour, linking Sukhothai with the unesco-listed sites of Luang Prabang in Laos, the ancient Vietnamese capital of Hue and the Khmer ruins of Angkor in Cambodia. Travelers can visit all four sites in eight days for about $1,000 including hotels. Or they can purchase individual flights for a customized itinerary. Says Prasarttong-Osoth: "Even those traveling for a short time will be able to get an understanding of this area's incredible history." And get a taste of incredible Bangkok Airways...
CULTURE CONTAINED Chiang Saen's National Museum is well worth a visit if history and archaeology hold some appeal for you. Established in 1957 near the crumbling majesty of Wat Chedi Luang, it contains a wealth of fascinating snippets about the Golden Triangle's bloody, tumultuous past. At its heyday in the 13th century, Chiang Saen was one of the most important cities in the Lanna kingdom; it boasts plenty of sites of archaeological significance, some dating to the prehistoric era. The museum has a fine collection of Buddha images, stone inscriptions and ceramics, as well as a section...