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64
FAHTHAI
of the smaller establishments. “The city’s growing,” says Chotika,
who runs the Kopi restaurant along the busy Prajak Sillapakom
road leading to the train station. “There are more shops and
condos and places to eat, but we’re getting less clients.”
Chotika’s fear is common in the various pockets of Thailand
that are seeing rapid growth. The trick however is to ensure the
gleaming new shopping malls don’t trample over traditional life
here. So far it hasn’t: down the backstreets of Udon Thani, where
the street food stalls and night markets continue to pump out
exotic aromas, and where throngs of locals meet and eat, the old
world is very much alive and kicking.
Some 15 million years
ago, Udon Thani lay deep
underwater. When the
oceans receded, they
left a landscape littered
with gravity-defying
rock formations – giant
boulders able to balance
on tall, thin spires. Several
million years later, humans
showed up at the site
and etched pictures of
buffalo into the rock.
These remain intact,
and today offer a narrow
window into ancient times.
Later still, as societal
practices became more
consolidated, ancestors of
current Thais arrived at the
site and carved Buddhas
into the stone.
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Archeologists have
uncovered earthen
pots at the World
Heritage Site of
Ban Chiang that
date back more
than 4,000 years
T H A I H E R I T A G E
Phu
Phra Bat
Historical
Park
