This was the first time that I got to see all of my wife's relatives that live in the general area. We all went to the family Wat in Saraburi, near her Aunt's home. Her Aunt's family runs a large concrete company there. I also got to meet Roong's grandmother. There must have been a total of around 100 people there all together, all eating, chanting, dancing around, and throwing water. This is just a few of us on the stairs leading up to the mountain shrines. That's Grandmother and Egg in front. Then Roong's Aunt Took. Then it's Roong's dad, our niece Bing, and Roong. Then cousin Ton and me. I met one guy that married in to the family, but I forgot his name. His Mom was Laotian, his dad is Thai, he lives and works in Paris, but speaks English. You talk about a funky accent!
The shrines were the most interesting thing about all of this. They were all over the sides of this small family mountain. Each one dedicated to an ancient family ancestor. They aren't even sure how truly old some of them are. The most amazing one is the main one. It's one of the farthest up the hill, and is actually a cave. You can see a little bit of the entrance in the shot above. Roong's great (x ?) grandfather built it a very very long time ago. It's full of water carved stalactites, Buddha images, natural water pools, and really big bats. It is very dark in there, so it was hard to get any good photos. The next time we go, we will take Roong's camera so we can get some better shots of the cave and all the other shrines that are hidden in the rocks on the hillside.
