The local dirt roads run along the river where surrounding land has been bought by rich investors from other cities. One lady who got married to a high profile English lawyer has been scooping up several pieces of land like hot cakes. Local people were quite amazed by the amount of cash she could lay her hands on during the spree of land shopping! Now she has established a four star resort by the river with nice location, beautiful garden and fusion food restaurant. I was half joking with my gardener that perhaps if we were hard up, we could go to work at this restaurant! But the working conditions sound rather strict and the pay quite low. So I should continue to stick with writing on blockchain and selling mangoes in summer.
We went along the dirt road in front of the luxury resort. Things seemed to have improve quite a bit; I saw several cars in the car park and guests were in the restaurant. The garden by the river is the best place to have some beer or wine during the sunset. The owner was a very shrewd businesswoman; the price of land has gone up by 50% during the past few years. There was a big house owned by a Australian who married a shy Thai lady next to the resort; but they were very private people and kept to themselves. This area should be considered the most desirable location along the river. Late comers have started buying land along the main road where new modern and very expensive houses have been popping up. I reckoned rich city people had taken to prepping seriously since the pandemic began.
I loved the slow ride along the dirt road where I could observe villagers houses and new development in this area. Luckily most richer people chose the northern provinces like Chiengmai and Nan for their getaway from the crowd. Now you could see traffic jam in those popular locations. So, I really enjoy the empty road and fewer cars in this place. Most people still keep bicycles for short journey to the market or post-office. The land is mostly flat and there are smaller roads and shortcuts to avoid the busy highways and main streets.
I asked the driver to take the shortcut along the river in town so that I could see whether tourism has picked up speedily. There are lots of small eateries and cheap hotels or guest houses along the river. I could spot many cars from Bangkok and other big cities. Tourists have started to come northbound to experience cold winter atmosphere; the car journey along the river to more mountainous areas in the north and south is well known for being very beautiful with great views along the way. In the old days, I would be able to spot European cyclists touring this road. A few years ago, gangs of bikers would go camping in wilder and unexplored mountains in Laos. They could reach Vientiane from here in about an hour.
Besides the cost of living here is still very cheap that’s why there are almost newly built houses by expats with local wives. I have spotted five Europeans in the local bar-cafeteria a few days ago. I do hope things would improve much more quickly, there used to be a big community of about thirty expats in town and they would organize Christmas party at a pub owned by an Englishman and his Thai wife. There is also a nice German bakery just behind the main hospital. Sadly, the Mexican restaurant has disappeared a long time ago. There’s really no demand for Mexican food in this small town.
Several people were taking photos with the green Nagas by the river. This has become a popular checkpoint for tourists. But it was funny to me as the tribe of Nagas who were assigned to live in the Thai side of the river was supposed to be those with brown or dark brown colour. Those with bright green scales were supposed to belong to the other tribe who were assigned to look after the land on the Laos side of the river.
There was a legend about a Great War among the two tribes of Water Snakes (Nagas) hundreds of thousands of years ago. Their quarrel over territory caused a lot of havocs among people so there was a petition to the heaven to help stopping this raging war. The Buddha had to come down to stop the dispute and assigned new territories for both tribes of Nagas. So, they became more peaceful and religious over the years and local people along the river could enjoy peaceful life again. Most of the video clips on strange water snakes appearing on the river could be found on the Internet. Most of these bobbing long being all seemed to be in brown colour to me. So, I wondered where all the green Nagas have gone! Perhaps they were very peace-loving and prefer to dwell quietly in their caves under the river.
In several old temple along the river, we could see ancient ponds built with over thousand years’ old bricks with Cambodian architectural style. These ponds are supposed to have secret passage to the river and underground caves. It would be interesting if some cave divers could come to explore some of these historical temples. Unfortunately I have never encountered a real live Naga. But I had strange dreams about them a few times. My gardener saw markings of big snakes at the back of my house several years ago. Perhaps the spirit of the land was giving her some message about the house and location.
Several years ago, a few visitors requested the permission to sit meditation on my walking meditation pad. One lady started to glow which really freaked out two visiting gardeners; their lawn mover refused to start until the lady got out of her meditation. On another occasion, an old visitor couldn’t move from the sweet spot on the meditation area. She felt tremendous energy running underneath her feet in the ground and she was shocked as she never believed in such things! I only know that this land is very special and there’s a portal to other dimension around the area. I already had seen UFOs twice along the river during the afternoon!
About those tree saplings; I was very lucky to get on very well with the nursery owner and she gave me good prices for almost fifty saplings. Lots of work were waiting for me. My vision of a small forest could become reality one day!
Wishing you peace, good health and prosperity.
Stay strong and cheerful.
