Info on Saraburi Requested

We visit a cemetary there every year, but don't spend any time around town.

Miss Ana, a new contributor to the TT, is from Saraburi.
Might send off a PM to her.

I spent a day there with Mrs. Ped's grandmother, who used to visit a lot of wats there fairly regularly. We went to to or three places which were more like "asoms" [ashrams], little encampments off the beaten track, including several limestone caves. One had the floor covered with bat droppings. It was an interesting day. The only painful part was when Amah decided she wanted to listen to a cassette tape of Chinese opera. That gets really old, really fast.

The area has, or had, extensive rock mining operations going on. In some areas the dust covered everything you could see, on both sides of the road, for a few kilometers, and the source was not apparent, so it was either one or two big mines, or lots of smaller mines.

One of the holy places we visited had a hill probably 100 feet high which two temple boys took me up. IIRC it also had the body of the founder of the place on display. From the top of the ill you could see across a wide plain of rice fields toward a mountain which you could tell had had its face mined away, as it was all exposed rock. Other than the fact that the hill was scarred, the view was quite impressive. Looking the other way was a craggy mountain on which someone had a Chinese style temple with little structures placed among the rocks, very much like some Chinese sculptures you sometimes see for sale.

From Saraburi there's a main road that leads to Khorat up a long grade, which has various temples en route, a bunch of roadside places selling things, including one that I was once told is famous for curry puffs. We got the curry puffs, I don't know what made them famous. One of the ashrams we visited with limestone caves was almost at the very top of the grade. Siam Cement has built a rock-processing factory in this area, near the top of the grade, and there is rock mining going on there. I don't know if this is still Saraburi or Khorat, but I think it's Saraburi.