Thailand: Bangkok to Phimai

This morning was an early one, as we had to leave the hotel at 7am. We drove about two to two-and-a-half hours until we came to our first stop, which was a quarry where the Khmer kingdom cut out huge chunks of sandstone to make a few of the nearby temples.

It became obvious today that my itinerary is not the usual one, and visits many out-of-the-way places where most tourists don't visit. The quarry is the first (of many) examples. Neither my guide nor driver knew where the entrance to the quarry was. They knew the general location, but had to reverse the car along a busy highway several times and ask for directions and eventually had to call someone to get its exact location. But it was near once we got there to see where they had chiseled out row after row of large stone blocks or circular shapes.

We got back on the road and drove another hour before we got lost trying to find the ruins of two temples. When we finally did find them, they were tucked away among rice paddies, long forgotten. We were the only ones there, although there was evidence that locals had been there recently. It was neat to see how the sandstone blocks fit together, especially after just seeing the quarry where they came from!

We got back on the road and drove another hour until we got to the place where we stopped for lunch, which was delicious!

It was hot today. 93F/34C. According to my guide, Thailand is the closest country to the sun, which is why it's always hot here.......

Braving the heat, we stopped at the local museum, which housed a very impressive collection of artifacts from the Khmer period. So many 13th century statues !!! After the museum, we stopped by the Phimai temple ruins. It was teaming with loud school children running around like squirrels on crack. It was SO hot, I don't think a pore in my body didn't leak. The heat made me cranky, and eventually nauseous, which shortened the time I would have liked to spend exploring the ruins, but I did get the chance to climb, walk and see all there was to see.

We drove another hour to the hotel, got checked in, and then I sat in the AC. I was feeling so yucky that I didn't even eat dinner (and if I don't eat, you KNOW something's wrong...). Tomorrow we move closer to the border with Laos, checking out temples as we go!!! Hopefully I'm feeling better!