Highway 12 from Lao to Myanmar

Highway 12 connects Lao to Myanmar, running east-west. Highway 12 is the main east-west highway in northern Thailand.

Highway 12 also connects Highway 1 and Highway 2 in northern Thailand. Highway 1 runs approximately north-south (tilted a little west) from Bangkok thru Chiang Rai and then into Myanmar in the far north after it crosses the bridge over the Ruak River. Highway 2 runs approximately north-south (tilted a little east) from shortly north of Bangkok (Saraburi) to Nong Khai where it crosses over the Friendship Bridge over the Mekong River into Lao, near Vientiane, Lao.

Highways 2 and 21 split off from highway 1 at junctions near each other in Saraburi, a short distance above Bangkok. Highway 21 runs approximately north-south in-between highways 1 and 2. Highway 21 crosses Highway 12 much further north, in the valley between the two Phetchabun mountain ranges.

Highway 12 is also known as Thailand National Highway 12 (NH12), and later became known officially as Asia Highway 12 (AH12) by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), because it is a main east-west highway in Southeast Asia crossing national borders.

Notably, Highway 12 passes by the old Sukhothai city. However, before modern times, the Phetchabun Mountain ranges blocked migration and trade between northwestern and northeastern Thailand for the most part, so that the two areas developed very separately for many centuries. Both regions were heavily settled by people descended by different tribes and branches of Tai people migrating southward, but speaking substantially different dialects. It was only during the late 1800s that language standardization was enforced by King Rama 5, for nation building, and partly in response to pressures by neighboring French and British colonies. This included the start of using the word "Isan" for the northeast to distinguish it from Lao. ("Isan" is a Pali word that means "northeast", and is not a Tai/Lao word.) This is all a long but very interesting story in Thai history ... but here, it is sufficient to say that Highway 12 is very much a new and modern link between western and eastern Thailand.

Highway 12 is a very scenic drive between western Khon Kaen province and Phitsanulok, over the two Phetchabun mountain ranges. These are big and beautiful mountains.

These mountains were formed around 250 million years ago, when continents were still crashing together to form the supercontinent Pangaea (which of course broke up later and split into today's continents). The mountain folds run north-south. The plate to the far west which Phitsanulok now sits on, went under Phetchabun to create the mountains to the west, and the plate which Phetchabun is now on went under Khon Kaen and Chaiyaphum to create the eastern range. There are also volcanic features to the east going towards Khon Kaen city, such as Phu Wiang.

The dinosaurs did not exist until after these mountains were formed. Dinosaurs branched off from reptiles starting shortly after these mountains formed.

These mountains were much, much larger at that time, and have eroded down over the hundreds of millions of years, creating rich agricultural valleys in Phetchabun, Khon Kaen, and Chaiyaphum.

(Notably, the dinosaurs were nearly wiped out by a big asteroid impact on Earth 65 million years ago. The only surviving descendants of dinosaurs are birds, which at the time were the smallest dinosaurs and could probably find shelter in little holes during the asteroid halocaust and live off tidbits of food around, eventually frozen. So, the next time you see a chicken walking around, you can imagine a miniature T-Rex, and similar to what survived the asteroid impact. There are lots of free range chickens roaming around farms and homes. We mammals came to dominate after the dinosaurs were wiped out. Modern humans emerged around 200,000 years ago.)

Tai people historically lived in mountainous areas but cultivated the valleys between the mountains, where the dirt is rich in nutrients and soft, and there is abundant water coming down from the mountains. Tai people were generally not mountain dwellers, they have always been mostly valley dwellers. Therefore, you can see core Tai culture in these valley areas.

However, there are some other ethnicities in the mountains not very far from here, too. Occasionally, you can hear people with odd accents and also alternative languages, though in this region they are usually a minority and among Tai descendants. There have been some interesting DNA studies ...

Off side roads where there isn't much lighting in the region, you can often see stars in the sky very clearly, when weather permits, especially during dry periods such as the cool season. PhuPhaMan is far from major city lights and pollution.

Looking up at the stars on a good night can remind you that our address can be extended with lines below "Thailand" as follows:

Moo 4, Baan Wangmon
Wang Suwap subdistrict
PhuPhaMan district
Khon Kaen province 40350
Thailand
Earth
Solar System
Milky Way Galaxy
Local [Galaxy] Cluster
Virgo Supercluster
Laniakea [super-] Supercluster
this Universe

There are around 100 billion stars (suns) in the Milky Way Galaxy. The observable universe has around 2 trillion galaxies.

There are many places in PhuPhaMan, the curtains to the mountains, and often with a clear window to the sky, where there are nice places to take a break and think about life, while you're still alive and of stronger mind. So don't wait too long to come.

Photo by NASA.

SpaceSettlement.com

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