Phimai

Finally been able to upload these. The wireless in the last hotel stopped working after an hour. I paid an whole extra $1AU to use it for 24 hours too! I'm in Nong Khai now and right across the river is Laos. Still no wireless, but the mobile network is quicker!

After leaving Nong Rang the other day I headed to Khon Kaen via Phimai, which had some more ruins to look at.

Stone carving above one of the entrances in the outer wall

Looking in from the outer wall to the inner wall.

From the steps of the outer wall, looking in to the inner complex. There are pictures of the king everywhere as his birthday (and the public holiday) is December 5th and they were setting up celebrations for it.

The main building, which I've since learned is called a Prasat, and the taller part of the Prasat is called a Prang!

More Stone carvings in the inner wall

More of the inner wall. There are steel supports throughout this section keeping it all upright.

More of the Prasat and other Prangs.

This is in the center for the Prasat, and pretty much the center of the entire historical park. There are four doors in this room and they line up with doors in the inner and outer walls of the complex.

Another Prang, but possibly unrestored (recently anyaway)

Even more unrestored.

The carvings over the door on the western side of the prasat.

This was out the back of the park, they had markings on all the blocks which included arrows for what I guess was up. Similar blocks were grouped together so I assume they had dismantled something and were going to reassemble it. I thought that was a bit of a cheat, then I remembered the story of the Abu Simbel temples in Egypt.

From the northern side of the park.

This was the main enterance, the Naga (five headed snake) brige to the outer wall of the complex.

Another view of the inner wall surrounding the prasat.

And that's all for Phimai. From there I headed to Khon Kaen, then Nang Khai. Now I'll sit here for the next five days to research what I need to do to get into Laos.