Jampasak again, come with me please

On July 23-27, I and my friends went to Khonkaen Udornthanee Ubolrajthanee and Jampasak,Laos PDR. In Khonkaen, we just spent the night and had dinner with my old colleague who was now the director of the Provincial Agriculture and Cooperatives Office. He still remember me, as being the ex-officer who retired for almost 5 years. Beside free accommodation, he also offered the delicious dinner from a nice restuarant to us. Fortunately, the owner of the restuarant was the Kasetsart University alumnus as same as us.

In Udornthanee, we went to visit my friends, also from Kasetsart, and visit a monk. He is the ex-deputy minister of Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives. He was the one who promoted me from the middle level administrator to the high level, which was the deputy director of Agricultural Extension Department. He helped me to be in great progress.
And then, we drove to Ubolrajthanee on July 24th, afternoon. The main purpose was to get to Jampasak where we wanted to visit some cashew nut farms of which I was trying to be one of the visiting advisor.

Vietnamese have invested many cashew nut farms in Jampasak as well, each farm was about 1,000-2,000 hectare[1ha=6.25rai]. One farm on the way we passed which was also more than 1,000 hectare was transplanting cashew nut seedling. Recently, I have seen a lot of Vietnamese there. They were already local citizens eventhough they still spoke Vietnamese among themselves. They owned various business such as restuarants, shops, tea farm, etc



Now we arrived at the guest house in Ubolrajthanee. In general, this area made us feel at home.



We stayed in this guest house because the hotels were full. It was the long weekend for buddhist lent and other important buddhist days[ Ar sa ra ha boo cha ]



Local dance shows which were so beautiful. I was stunt with many beautiful dancers



This was at the night time on the food centre near the guest house where we stayed



Arriving in Jampasak. Looked at Mae Khong and rested our eyes sight. It looked far, soft and cool. We are lucky to be born around here



Between lunch on the Mae Khong Riverside Restuarant



Suspension bridge, made by bamboo woods and metal stings, to the water fall



Beautiful, wasn't it?



This water fall was named Pa Suam. A Thai man from Nakornpatom found it and made his business here. Now he is blind because of Malaria Fever. The great Pioneer whom we are proud of.



Plant diseases were the major problems of cashew nut cultivation. This was the organic farm or natural ways practice which was a lot harder than the substance used farms



Algae outbreak symtoms?



Some symtoms on the leaf



Leaf worms?



Infection were shown on the branch tips which were the place for flowering



Weed is another problem particularly for the natural cultivation



Dried flowering because of a disease. We must take samples to the lab for making culture and investigation



Growing not very well. Agreeing that cashew nut cultivation is not the easy practice.



Local farm in general, it is hard to make an intensive care



Look at the old lamps. When I was young and went to live with my grand mother, uncles, aunts, and relatives in the countryside village, we used these lamps at night. I still remember the atmosphere of my impressive old times.



Wood carving dolls on sale at the water fall area.



Other style, look terrible for me



Coming again to this water fall, a big one



Every time to Jampasak, we came here because we brought different group of friends



Look cool and fresh



Water fall's name, Klong Pa Peng



Mae Khong River for the villagers's being



Beautiful Temple on the small hill.



Can you eat them? They were alive lizards, founded in the evening village market.



Other meat source for the same local evening market



Baby frogs, still alive and jumping, they were also for food?

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I'd rather have only vegetable, legume and starches



Look at the Joss stick-candle basket making by banana leaf and flowers



For the buddha image worshipping, I thought these stuff were on the buddhist days. But I did not ask anyone.

Pakse is a big city in Jampasak. There is a small town called Jampasak on the other side of Maekhong River, but Jampasak is also the name of the province. Daorueng Group was the big business firm in Pakse. We saw many business sites ownd by Daorueng such as market, building, hotel etc. They are like CP and a few business giants in Thailand.

Thai Government by the ex-prime minister, provided many assistantships to Laos by government budget[by our taxes paying] but Lao people thought that these were from Mr.Prime Minister personally instead of Thai government. Therefore, this was the strategy of politicians to call attention from the people[ anywhere, not only in Laos]. They paid nothing but gained a lot. I wish the people felt that these assistantships were from their friends, our Thai people.



Coming back to Ubonrajthanee. Next pictures were the candle wax decoration cars contest in Ubolrajthanee for the Buddhist lent day event



Second prize award



This well known contest is popular nationwide. Thai and tourists come for the event.



First prize award



Very pink, sweet colour like candy

We left Ubonrajthanee about 1.00pm after having papaya salad, fried chicken and sticky rice. We drove on the shorter way passed through different provinces. The road was narrower and the car was driven slower but we could watch scenery on the roadside. We arrived in BKK some times around midnight. This was one of my happy moment, I am happy everytime if I can travel far because I think of nothing but the next destination. Chavalvut.