Nong Khai

I'm in Nong Khai. Still. Just wasting time before going to Laos. Here are some photos!

Clouds yesterday, just before sunset.

Looking from Thailand to Laos

Sunset, looking towards the first friendship bridge (there are 4 now, the 5th is being built!)

Looking downriver. A vegetable garden on the banks of the mekong.

Looking upriver again.

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.

Nang Rong

Today I'm in Nang Rong. Not much too the town, very very few tourists, but it's close to Phanom Rung so there's a few guesthouses around. This is also the place where the resort/resturant Cabbages and Condoms is, their website explains in detail what they do for the poorer people in Thailand. However, I'm staying at Honey Inn because it's in town and I was meeting up with Miguel and Inés (they were on the tour in Khao Yai) who were arriving by bus.

So now I have lots of pictures of more ruins to upload!

Phanom Rung Historical Park

This is the main thing to see here. It's a Hindu shine for the god Shiva built in the 10th/11th century on the top of an extinct volcano. The crater was filled in and then this temple built on top. 

Of course, there are step, steep big steps.

The main path to the temple.

Inside the main walls.

Some older brickwork. I suspect everything else has been restored.

More of the shrine.

Top of the main building.

Some of the carvings over the doors. They all depict various Hindu stories.

The outside!

More outside!

Singa, looking out over the land.

This is where (the?) Singa is looking.

Looking back through the temple from one wall, through the middle building and out the other wall.

Some of the brick carvings.

Not sure who this is.

This is right in the middle of the main building. 

Cow!

Some more ruins.

The five headed snake thing, most likely restored from the original.

An original, maybe.

The stacks of rocks, there are a lot of these around.

Prasat Hin Meuang Tam


Off the mountain is Meuang Tam, which I think translated to 'lower city', but this was not its original name. It looks like less effort has gone into restoring this one.

The inner part of the temple. There is a wall surrounding it all, but I forget the name they actually used for it.

This was from the wall looking in to the center.

There are some ponds around this temple. And this had something to do with why it was there, but I forget now and I'm too lazy to look it up :)

Two out of the five heads left on this snake.

Looking at the back of the main building, a lot of it is missing now.

Most of this temple was sandstone blocks, which would have been covered with bricks, and then... Something else which I forgot. 

The inner area.

The Library on the left, mostly gone now.

The four main... Things.

Back towards the entrance.

I think this is more of a buddist thing, but this was outside of the temple.

And that's all for Nang Rong. Tomorrow I'm heading north to Khon Kaen via Phimai to visit some more old stuff. And then I'll stop for a while and not upload photos :)