Normally, I prefer to be sober. But for my latest trip outside the country, I wished I had better and heavier drugs than cough drops and cold medicine. Perhaps it would have made my visa run more enjoyable, then again, probably not.
I stayed over in Nong Khai on my way back from Vientiane, and I’m glad I did. Nong Khai is a border town, but unlike Vientiane, where you feel like you’re in hell’s waiting room, Nong Khai has some touristic attractions that I wanted more time to see.
However, time did allow for me to go to Sala Keoku or Salakeawkoo which is a bizarre sculpture park created Boun Leua Sourirat in the late 1970s.
This park is supposedly an inspiration derived from years of living with a hermit named Keoku that Sourirat met in a cave. With Keoku he learned about Buddha and the underworld.
From Mut Mee Guest House, the park is about 7km and as soon as I walked up, I muttered to myself, “I’m entirely too sober for this.”
Something that the photos cannot truly convey is the grandness of the statues, some of which are 25m or 82 feet tall. Usually, in Thailand there is only one large statue, the Buddha, at a temple, but at Sala Keoku there are so many awesome statues that you feel like you have stumbled upon sleeping giants.
Life, the Universe, and Lani 
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