Getting There: Our trip began on Tuesday evening, leaving right after Peep got off work. We crossed over the Mekong River into Thailand and made the four hour drive to Udon Thani where we checked into our hotel for the night. The Udon Thani airport isn't the closest one to us, but following our time in Chiang Saen we planned to go Vientiane and wanted the car available. Vientiane is only an hour's drive from Udon. Our flight left early on Wednesday and, after a layover in Bangkok, we touched down in Chiang Rai later that morning. We immediately met up with the driver from our hotel and jumped in the van for the final leg of the journey to Chiang Saen. Within an hour we were checked into our room and settled down for a relaxing evening.
Registration: The next day, Thursday, started with registration for the two Friday races, the duathlon and the aquathlon. In years past, they have had the aquathlon on the first day of racing and the duathlon on the second, so this was a departure from their usual schedule and meant a lot of racing for me on day one. Peep and I had the rest of the day free, so we decided to bike around the city and visit some of the ancient ruins we didn't see when we were here three years ago.
Roi Kho Temple: The first temple we came across as we were biking around the city was the Roi Kho Temple. Believed to have been built in the sixteenth century, this temple is still in very good shape compared to most of the temple ruins throughout the city. It contains a Chedi topped by a Lotus Chamber, a decorative, eight-sided structure. Most prominent is a statue of Buddha, sitting in a Subduing Mara, or Calling the Goddess of the Earth to Witness, pose
Sao Khian Temple: Half a block away, we came upon another temple. The Sao Khian Temple is also believed to have been built in the sixteenth century and is constructed in the exact same design as the Roi Kho Temple. However, the Lotus Chamber is not nearly as well preserved and the Buddha image is missing its head. In times of war, looters often found it too difficult to transport full Buddha statues and instead took just the head with them. Headless Buddhas can be seen in the ruins of temples all across Thailand.
Wat Pa Sak: From Sao Khian we proceeded outside the city walls to the Wat Pa Sak. This temple was much more grandiose than the first two we visited. It was constructed sometime around 1332. It has since been reconstructed 2-3 times and displays influences of Pagan, Lanka, China and Sukhothai architecture. A small group of monks and faithful worshippers arrived and prayed at the temple while we were there.
Mung Muang Temple: We biked back inside the city walls and quickly came to the Mung Muang Temple. This temple is in the same style as the first two we visited but it is much older, having been built in the fourteenth century. After visiting this temple, Peep and I went to have a late lunch. Not wanting to spend too much time out in the hot sun the day before my races, we then back to our air-conditioned room at the hotel.
Evening: As the sun neared the horizon, I unpacked my bike from its travel case, assembled it, and took it out for a short test ride. Confident it was mechanically sound, I returned to the hotel for dinner. Later that evening, around nine o'clock, I was getting ready for bed when the entire room started shaking. The sliding door leading into the bathroom began rattling and a couple of bottles of water we had on a shelf fell off. It was an earthquake! We braced ourselves in a doorway, directly between the beams of the post-and-beam building, and waited for the shaking to stop. In all, it must have lasted about twenty or thirty seconds, but felt much longer than that. Peep originally estimated it to be five minutes. When the earthquake stopped, we left the hotel and waited in the parking lot across the street while the workers inspected the building for structural damage. About forty minutes later they gave the all-clear and we returned to our room to try and get some sleep. There were a couple of aftershocks that aroused us during the night, so it wasn't the peaceful night's rest I was hoping for the day before my race.