Sala Kaew Ku

One weekend in Khon Kaen, a few of my friends invited me take a Saturday and travel outside the city. Since I'm always game for adventures, I went along. Turns out we were headed to a place I visited almost exactly 14 years previously, Sala Kaew Ku.

Near the provincial town of Nong Khai on the border of the Mekhong River, Sala Kaew Ku is a collection of large statues depicting scenes from Buddhist and Hindu stories.

The site has become a local tourism destination. Beyond the scale of these statues, summaries describing their importance are also presented in the local dialect (Isan), which is somewhat different from most Thai tourism sites. I believe this is reflective of the man who built it, Bunleua Sulilat, a man from Nong Khai. He built a similar site across the Mekhong River in Laos.

Anyway, it's a fun place to visit. They've added a fish pond since my last visit. The sign wasn't lying; the fish were quite big.

The fish aren't the only things that are a big.

My favorite part of the park is a set of statues depicting the human life cycle, which surrounds this head with multiple faces.

Oh, cute. Things are really looking up!

Young love... so sweet.

Love and marriage, they go together like a horse and carriage.

Enter the mistress... and domestic abuse.

Old age and poverty come after beating mistresses in this story. 

All's well that ends well?

The whole thing is rather depressing. But I guess that sometimes life is rather depressing.

Speaking of how life works, as I said, I visited Sala Kaew Ku about 14 years ago. That seems like a long time, but I remember it very well. In my mind it was almost last week.

It seemed a perfect time to recreate a photo.

The pose wasn't exact, but it's not bad for having 14 years between the before-and-after.