We flew to Khonkaen and rent a little Toyota Vios to tour around. Our first stop is the Dinosaur Museum at Phu Wieng. We drov off from highway 201 about 50 Km to get to the museum. Phu Wieng Gosaurous was first found here. We took about an hour to walk around the museum and take turn to take photos.
We then drove off back to highway 201 to get to Loei. Khon Kaen and Loei is about 200 Km away. Our next stop was Phu Kra Dueng, the famous mountain trekking site where all students in their prime age always visit and go up to the top for once in their life. The walking and climbing distance is around 6 Km. and would take a normal healthy guy 4-5 hours to reach the top. Pun Pun was too small to climb up. Anyway we took lots of photo at the base to show the world that we both have been here. We also have the certificate made saying that we had conquered Phu Kra Dueng. (This certificate later did fooled my wife and sister that we both had reached the top of Phu Kra Dueng and made them so jealous.)
From Phu Kra Dueng we drove directly to RungYen resort in Phu Rue (just another 60 Km. away from the city of Loei) to end our first day trip. So far we had already drive around 300 Km. for the first day. We were so excited to get away from the house and spend the night at one of the coolest spot in Thailand. Our next morning plan was to go up the top of Phu Rua mountain to see the sunrise and we should leave the hotel at 5:00 in the morning.
It was also a Christmas Eve and Pun Pun wish to receive some presents from Santa Claus. Before going to bed, he prayed for the visit. Before sleeping, he put up a sock at the end of the bed. Shockingly, the next morning he woke up and rushed to his sock to find a stick of "Chupa Choop" candy inside his sock. He was so glad and I was so surprised how the candy came into his sock. Still unexplainable. He promised me that he would be a good kid so that Santa can come and visit him again next year. He was so proud and excited.
The temperature at RangYen was 12C. We drove through the darkness heading for the top of Phu Rua mountain. We were there at 5:30AM. We then took a little bus from our parking space to face the tip of Phurua just before the sun rise. The temperature was dropped to 9C. It was cold, but not so cold as we expected.
After Phurua, we came back to our resort to clean up and pack things to move on. Our next stop would be the "Kang Kud Koo", a famous river bank along the Mekhong river where we planned to have lunch.
We decided to take a small country road along the border of Thai and Laos alongside the Methong river. It was a scenic route and lots of trees and many beautiful scenery. The road was quite bad as many truck loading with stuffs from Laos use this route as well. The surface of the road was quite bumpy. Anyhow, it took us almost 3 hours to finish the 60 Km, but it was worth the try.
We arrived safely at "KangKudKoo". We had lunch there. The famous local thing to buy is the sweetened coconut. We stopped by and bought a Kilo of coconut with half for us to eat along the way, and another half for the mother and sister at home. The coconut did not get to our home. Pun Pun finished them all before. It was so tasty.
That afternoon, we drove back to the city of Loei to stay at Loei Palace hotel. Too bad, the TV in the room can receive the Cartoon Network. Pun Pun asked to stay for 2 hours in front of the TV.
In the evening, we decided to have dinner at a water reservation dam. It's called "Nam Mhan". It was a peaceful and quiet place to visit. We rented a wooden raft and stay afloat in the middle of the dam. We ordered some food and drink and eat and lie down there. It was a perfect lazy man dream holiday. Pun Pun loves this place so much and will take his mom and sister to this place when we come to Loei the next time.
The next morning we drove off from Lei Palace hotel at about 7:00AM in the morning. It would take us 2 hours to leave Loei via WangSaPung and Nhong Bua Lumpoo to get to Udon Thani airport. We get to the airport at about 10:00Am to return the car and catch the flight back home.
That's conclude our father-son three day holiday. And after we get back, we have to leave our house as early as 4:00 in the morning to catch the flight to Singapore. This time the whole family is to be together. Pun Pun and I had travelled for more than 5,000 Km. in a week. That's tiring but fun. I'll tell you more about our Singapore trip later.
