Visit to Ubon Ratchathani University
When I first arrived in Khon Kaen for my sabbatical visit to Khon Kaen University in November 2013, I got connected to Drs. Sompop Sanongraj (Dom) and Aom Dechapanya, a very hospitable couple working in Ubon Rachathani University (UBU). They invited and asked me whether I could pay a visit to their university. I said I would love to see my old friends like them whenever I was ready, since I was still new to this city of Khon Kaen. Then, after almost 2 months, it came the official invitation from Dr. Sompop and I was invited to give a 3-hour speech in Chemical Engineering Department at UBU on January 18-22, 2014. And Dr. Chatchai Kunyawut was in charge of arranging my visit schedule.
I was so honoured that Dr. Kunyawut and his graduate students picked me up at my place in Khon Kaen. It took around 4 hours to get to Ubon Ratchathani by Van. We stopped by at Roi Et (means “101") and passed through Yasothon. On the way to Ubon, there’re endless harvested rice fields, one after another and another, on both sides of the highway. There’s no doubt that this region must be one of the rice barns in Thailand. At around 6 pm, I checked in Sunee Grand Hotel.
Ubon Ratchathani University
The next day was Sunday. I went to the nearby Church in the morning and gave a talk at UBU in the afternoon. In my presentation, I was specially interested in the UBU's logo. I spent quite a while to talk about it. In the bottom three layers (see the picture below) of the logo, they represent three major rivers in Ubon region, including Mekong, Chii and Mun rivers. This quite makes sense as you see these three rives in the map, with Mekong river flowing southward in the east. On top of this, there’re 5 lotus petals, with the lower 2 petals representing "intellectuality and morality", and the top three "reaching to happiness". In addition, the blue frame of this logo stands for strength and stability of this university. The university tree is Kan-Krao. It can survive in even very infertile soil and this points to the strength and unity of the university working towards the future. Indeed, what a meaningful logo! But I was wondering whether students know all about this logo.
After the talk, Dr. Chatchai toured me around the campus before the sunset. I did take some good photos of UBU’s beautiful campus and some featured buildings. The most impressive look is its huge lake, which was a man-made one according to Dr. Chatchai. He said it was made for water supply purpose when this campus was to be established. If you see the lake area in the map, you can tell how large it is, in view of its proportion to the whole campus area. It appears that this lake can become an attractive scenic point and a good jogging place along the lake bank.
Then we went to another area where the two brand new buildings was just constructed. One is the UBU’s campus hotel, with a name "U Place", and another is the convention hall. If you see this building of convention hall carefully, you will find it looks like the image of UBU’s logo. Even the image of “U place" looks similar as well. UBU’s infrastructure, the hard part, seems connected to the logo very well. As for the soft part, it takes some more time to see if it also fits to the spirit of this university.
3-hour Speech
Campus Tour
Scenic spots
On the third day, UBU’s driver took us to the border town, where Mekong river meets Mun river. It’s very clear to see the difference of water colour at the point Mun flowing into Mekong; the former is cleaner-blue while the latter is with muddy-brown colour. This may indicate that possible deforestation occurs in the upstream of Mekong river.
Another breathtaking place we went was Pha Taem National Park, further north from 2-color point. When I walked in the park, it’s like I was walking in an immensely gigantic rock. I was wondering how the trees there can grow out of such a hard rock. Along the trail of the park, you can see beautiful Mekong river on your right hand side. Again Laos is on the opposite side. This country was so near to me several times, like the ones in Golden Triangle, Chiang Khan, Nong Khai, and Ubon. Yet, so far there’s no chance to get into Laos.
Sitting on the hilltop, I am sure the spacious flood plains would draw your attention to gaze for a while. I was thinking there that I was so blessed to see many natural spots in Issan region all because of so many lovely friends here in Thailand. Without their favour, my sabbatical stay in Issan could not be so wonderful and abundant.
Besides, the highlight of this national park is its pre-historical painting on the cliff. The painting still remains quite clear after so many and many years. The pictures relate to their surrounding environment and their daily life. Wild animals, people and tools were painted on the wall. It’s just hard to imagine how our ancient ancestors could make it. Human being seems loving to paint what they see and imagine. So there’s no wonder that you’ll see pictures on the walls everywhere in any big cities of any countries. One last thing I want to mention is this: tiny tree branches supporting giant rock. Of course, this is kind of sense of humour of Thai tourists. As the sign post has regulated, it is not allowed to do like this, but it looks very meaningful. I always gave it a smile when I saw it again and again, walking along the trail.
Two-color Point
Pha Taem National Park
Brief getting-together with Dom and Aom
During this visit, it happened that Mew, younger son of Dom an Aom, got a terrible fever. The fever just went up and down, and they had to send him to the hospital for a closer blood checkup. So we could not have meals together for the first 2 days of my visit. Only when it was one day before I left Ubon, they brought Mew and Max (older son) to have dinner together. However, Mew appeared to be uncomfortable and so shy that we could not sit and enjoy the dinner of Vietnamese style. After a few of rush photoshots and a very brief talk with Dom and Aom, they had to leave earlier for the sake of Mew’s fever. Their stay was in a moment, yet this could last for quite a long time in my memory with these valuable photos.
Appreciation
Again I would like to extend my thankfulness to Dr. Chatchai Kunyawut for all his arrangement in this visit to Ubon Ratchathani University. He even entertained me with surprising Taiwanese song and melody when I sat in his car. This made me feel like I was driving on the street in Taiwan. I also appreciate for being able to listen to Issan music and songs, which he has collected in his CD album.
