Ubon Ratchathani - Laos: Graduation Trip
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After graduating from Mahidol Wittayanusor high school in Nakorn Pathom, my roommate, my neighbor Stang, and I decided to go on a trip together. That coincided when my parent just bought a new house in my hometown, Ubon Ratchathani. We thus decided to gather at my hometown and go to Laos, which is two hours from Ubon Ratchathani. Thanks to several sponsors (i.e., Pleng, Prim’s, and my parents), we had a perfect time staying in my hometown and Savannakhet, Laos.
We decided to go to Laos first. We went there by van with a local guide. The first stop was the coffee shop (and a restaurant) named Delta Cofee. We had simple lunch there (i.e., I had Moo-kra-tium (garlic pork) over rice, and my friends had some Thai fried rice). We then went to see several waterfalls, and one of them was the Thad-Pha-Suam waterfalls. The province that we explored is called Savannakhet, which is next to the border between Thailand and Laos. The night at Sabaidee hotel was very comfortable because of the nice weather. We also had some free time in the evening, so we went bicycling around the hotel’s garden. We sure had fun with little things like that!
In fact, my hometown is very famous for this one spot in the Khongchiam district, Sam phan bok (3000 pits in English). People call this place the “Grand Canyon of Thailand,” which is the biggest rock reef in the Mekong River. We went there by van again from my new house and then took a longboat to see the exact spot where the pits were. The place was amazing, and the light that day turned the rocks into this pretty golden color. There were some sand beaches and rock formations spots nearby, for example, Pha Taem national park, Sao Chalieng, and Hard Hongs, so we visited those places as well. I would love to recommend those places if you ever come to my hometown. They are close to one another, but you just need to be careful about the heat! Prepare enough sunblocks and an umbrella if you go.
Back to the city, we spent a couple of days exploring the inner city of Ubon Ratchathani. At that time, there was a new 3D art museum near the Ubon Ratchathani Airport. We took a cab there and spent like half a day doing lots of silly shots. This kind of museum is best when you go with your best friends!
Last but not least, my hometown has this spacious zoo which was founded and blended with massive woods near the city. The zoo was half an open zoo because there was a zone where you can ride a golf car into a herd of unbarred deers and their relatives. The zoo was pretty fun, although there were not many animals back then. Ploy (my roommate) also got to touch a tiny python, which is still quite scary.
A month after that, I was pretty disappointed to leave for the US but also excited to start a new chapter of my life at the same time. After all, we had such a good time together in my hometown and in school. High school time was extremely short whenever I looked back.
After we found out that there are some flights from Willard (a regional airport in Champaign) that are inexpensive, we started flying out from here instaead of Chicago. We got a really good price of plane tickets to Seattle, so we decided to go to more national parks! The two parks that we visited were Mount Rainier and Olympic National Parks. We thought about going to North Cascade as well, but the time was limited so we planned to visit there next time. Visiting these two popular national parks in the fall was such a good choice–less crowd, nice weather, and fall foliage!
Midwest surprisingly offers us many national parks to visit all year round. One of the national parks near Illinois is the Mammoth Cave National Park in Cave City, Kentucky. We rented a car from Champaign and drove around 5 hours, excluding small stops in Indiana. We had never been to Kentucky before, and we believe that not many international students had been there. Plus, this was the first time we visited a cave in the US, and we start with the world’s longest known cave system!
We’d been thinking of visiting South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore and Badlands national park for almost a year. Then an opportunity came when one of our friends gave us a buy-one-get-one-free coupon from Delta. We did not hestitate even a bit in buying two tickets for a round trip from Chicago to Rapid City, SD. Although it was an impulsive trip, we had a lot of fun observing the wildlife in the great plains of South Dakota and North Dakota.
Although Poy graduated from the Scripps-Oxford joint Ph.D. program in Biochemistry for half a year and already started working at UIUC as a post-doctoral researcher, his graduation ceremony was held way later in May 2024. His family also came from Thailand to attend his graduation ceremony in San Diego. We then spent over a week afterward traveling around the west coast, including California, Arizona, and Nevada. It was my first time (and his family’s first time) doing a road trip in the west coast. We enjoyed a huge variety of natural wonders that the west coast has to offer.