February 1998
original document:
NOV 2000
reconditioned:
AUG 2019
Volker Grabowsky and Kham Saeng
On this expedition
Achan Kham Saeng accompanied us.
Ban Chiang Khaeng is situated on the eastern side of river Mekong. From Müang Sing to Ban Chiang Khaeng you can use a way across the mountains. But we could not use it because our luggage was too heavy.
We took a pickup car and went 75 km on the road Nr. 322 till Chiang Kok and than nearly 100 km with a boat Mekong upstream.
The diversion across Chiang Kok
At first we took the pickup car to Chiang Kok ...
heavy luggage
After an overnight stay we entered (caution!) a boat
Low water in the Mekong! There was a rapid. The passengers had to leave the boat and walk along the embankment. Not before the boat had passed the rapid we could reenter.
The present-day village Ban Chiang Khaeng (Xiangkheng) has been the capital of the principality Chiang Khaeng until the second third of the 19th century.
Its ruler Cao Fa Sili Nò transfered the capital at first from (Ban) Chiang Khaeng to Müang Yu (situated west of the Mekong in what is now Myanmar). From there the ruler's seat was finally moved to Müang Sing. Around 1887 more than 1,000 people were resettled from Müang Yu and other areas into the new capital of Müang Sing.
Ban Chiang Khaeng at river Mekong
Distance between the grid lines: 2 km
Ban Chiang Khaeng above river Mekong, view downstream
view southwards into the mountains
The main monastery
(Wat Luang) of the old
capital Chiang Khaeng
The stupa (dhatu)
of the old monastery
view from the south in the evening light
view from the north
Surroundings
View from the mountains above Ban Chiang Khaeng at the rice-fields along the Nam Khun, a small tributary of the Mekong
An old stupa northeast of Ban Chiang Khaeng, now overgrown by the jungle
The scientists studied them, then we took photos
Hospitality
Caution ! open fire in bamboo huts
fare-well at a kitchen
...last picture together
... boarding !
that was an adventure for all people
the rapids directly in front of the boat
(the red pennants are part of the boat)
the boatman takes a schnapps
