22nd March, 2010

Today's weather;

Partly cloudy with plenty of blue sky to be spotted and a current temp at 7am of 29C. It looks like another hot day!

Beach scene at Laem Sor Chedi

Yesterday was hot and sunny with a max temp of 31.2C

Camille

Laem Sor Chedi, part 2

Laem Sor Chedi, part 2

It's been 2 and a half years when I wrote part 1 and the long wait was not intentional but just happened. Earlier in January this year we visited Laem Sor's Chedi again and this time the construction was completed which was going on during our earlier visit.

The road sign that indicates where the Chedi and Pagoda are is easily overlooked, so keep your eyes open when you're on the road in that part of the island.

Now in full glory and with Buddha images and sculptures in all places, it's a nice view and look. When we were visiting there was a small ceremony going on and a tent was set up in front of the chedi with Buddha images.

Very nice was the room with the boat inside, about 100 meters away from the chedi. The room was now filled and the boat surrounded with small boats, for good luck.

There's now also a wax image inside the big boat of the the monk sailed the original boat during World War II from Surat Thani to Samui.

Whilst on a trip around the island this is a beautiful and quiet place to stop and enjoy the scenery of the chedi, the pagoda on top of the hill (which I still haven't visited) and the Temple or Wat that is in the jungle nearby and it has a free entrance.

Camille

Buddha Chedi Laem Sor, part 1

Part of our trip last Saterday included a visit to the Buddha Chedi Laem Sor.

In all of my 8 years, I never visited here, as a few other places we visited that day, like Wat Kiri Wongkaram and the Natural museum in Lamai. The main reason being that they're quite far away from the North Eastern part of the island where my family and me live. However, all the sites and temples we visited, are well worth to visit again and this also counts for Buddha Chedi Laem Sor.


As this map tells, there's a lot to be seen here. This part is only about the Chedi or Pagoda. There's a temple here as well, beautifully located in the woods/jungle, similar to Wat Suanthamma at the Hin Lad waterfalls in Nathon. I will post about the temple at a later date and there's another Pagoda nearby build on a mountain, which we couldn't visit this time around due to the weather conditions and the road up the mountain not being safe right now.

Here's a picture of the Pagoda. It's re-construction is almost finished, marble plates are still being placed around the floor at his moment. Next year, there will be a 100 year memorial celebration for and at this place, definitely something to look forward to.

The Pagoda is covered in small yellow tiles which makes it look like it's made of gold from a distance. This optical illusion probably works better when it's nice and sunny!

A closer look on the Pagoda and it's two guards also known as 'Yak'.

Not far away from the Pagoda, is a small building which houses a boat. It's possibly just 200 meters away from the Pagoda. The story as far as I could gather so far is that a monk from Surat Thani had to flee Surat Thani during the World War II area and sailed all the way to Samui in this boat and arrived at this spot all alone.

It's finally a picture which makes me happy with the reflection of the window, since it looks like the boat is back into the water, at least half way.

The same building from a bit of distance, with the Monks boat clearly displayed.

All in all this is a very nice place to visit, quiet and relaxed and various things to explore in real close vicinity, the Pagoda, the Temple and another Pagoda up on the hill, something I have to get back for myself.

There's also a 2nd part now to read.

Camille