Just a short drive west from Nang Rong is another of eastern Thailand’s big cities, Nakhon Ratchasima, or Khorat for short. After my run in with the angry Asian wasps and now with a busted camera lens, I went straight to one of Khorat’s shopping malls to see if I could find a new one. Shopping malls are all but dead in the States, but here in Thailand they are alive and thriving.

I never thought I’d end up spending one of my vacation days in a mall, but here I am. It turned out to be a super productive day though. I didn’t find a zoom lens like the one that got smashed, but I now have two new lenses, a close up and a wide angle to add to my superzoom, three total. That should get me through the trip. I was also able to take care of some chores while here. I needed more sunblock, more toothpaste, and my Thailand phone bill was due, so I got everything taken care of. Then I had a small lunch at the food court and went to the top of that tower for a birds eye view of Khorat.

There’s very little in the way of sights in Khorat. I really came here just to see a couple of nearby ruins. The much slower pace turned out to be a good thing because I haven’t been feeling right since that wasp attack. I have big lumps on a few of my fingers where they stung me, a gigantic lump on the back of my neck from a sting, and a raging headache. I also haven’t eaten for about a day and a half after that small lunch at the mall. They really did a number on me!

Anyway, Mueang Sema is the “big” Khmer ruin to the south of Khorat. The city was actually founded by the Dvaravati in the 7th or 8th century and later taken over by the Khmer in the 10th century. I wasn’t super impressed, though. There’s mostly just some stone foundations left. The most intact ruin in the place is seen in the pic above. Nearby, however, is this really impressive 8th century reclining Buddha. It’s the oldest reclining Buddha statue in Thailand.

For all the attention Mueang Sema gets, it’s lucky for me that there were three other cool ruins in the area to save the day. Prasat Muangkhaek is a Hindu temple built in the 10th century. There was a few really awesome lintel carvings here as well.

The next two were small sites, but I was pretty impressed with them. Today I also discovered that a new fear as been unlocked in me that I will need to get over, walking through ancient stone doorways. I just couldn’t do it without examining the doorway first and then holding my breath in fear as I jumped through. Ha!

The next morning it was pouring rain so I started with a quick visit to Khorat’s teeny tiny one room national museum. They had some really beautiful pieces in there though.

I mentioned the big three Khmer sites in Thailand in the last post and I saw two of them in the last post too. It was still raining pretty hard, but I set off to explore the third of Thailand’s big three, Phimai Historical Park. By the time I got there the rain had stopped.

The ruins are located right smack in the middle of the modern town of Phimai. Consequently, it’s a busy place. There was a lot of tour busses and lots of city sounds as I explored this one.

There has been a temple on this spot since about the 8th century, but most of this was built in the 11th century by the Khmer King Jayavarman VII. This was considered the northernmost city in the Khmer kingdom and the big giant uber famous temple at Angkhor in Cambodia was modeled after this one here. Wow!

I really enjoyed this place. There are lot of details remaining on the temple and the entryways. Good thing I now have a total of three camera lenses to capture it all. I’m realizing now I might need a bigger camera case.

The rain stopped before I got here, but now the sun is absolutely relentless and I’m still not feeling 100%, so next I thought it would be a good idea to cool off a bit in the Phimai National Museum. There were a lot of carvings left on the temple, but most of it is kept here, including the original Buddha and the armless Jayavarman VII statues found in the temple (seen below)

After the museum I drove around visiting some of the outer sites. Phimai traditionally had four gates into the city. Today the north and south gates are the most intact.

The south gate was especially cool. You can see the main temple through it all the way down the street.

Meru Brahmathat is a toppled 18th century stupa from the Ayutthaya kingdom. Don’t, worry, I’ll be exploring all the Ayutthaya ruins in a few days. Even when I was planning this trip, I didn’t imagine that Thailand had this many amazing ruins from so many different time periods. I’m loving it!

This next temple, Prasat Hin Phanom Wan, is another one that I found just by randomly trolling around on the GPS. It’s only a few miles outside of Khorat, but doesn’t seem to get mentioned anywhere. I stopped by on my way back to town.

Prasat Hin Phanom Wan was built as a Hindu temple from the 9th to 11th centuries on top of a prehistoric settlement dated to around 500BC. During the 13th and 14th centuries it was used as a Buddhist temple. Another one I’m really glad I didn’t miss.

That was about all I had planned for Khorat. My last night I finally started feeling a little better. After almost two days without eating I had a huge dinner in the city and stopped by the Thao Suranari Monument. Thao Suranari is a local hero, affectionately known as Ya Mo. In the early 19th century she was the wife of the assistant governor when Khorat was conquered by Chao Anou from Vientiane. In 1826 she successfully led a revolt against Chao Anou’s troops by convincing the women to seduce the Lao soldiers, buying time for their Thai men to launch a surprise attack. She’s kind of a big deal! This monument is super busy all day every day with people praying to her and paying their respects. She gets more love than Buddha in this town!

My next stop is only another short drive away, so I made a detour to get in a hike. It’s not as spectacular as some of the other hikes I’ve done so far, but it was a nice climb to some great views.

The climb up involved a lot of steps of doom over and sometimes through the crazy rock formations. In the pic above are some wooden ladders that were sitting alongside the metal staircase. I’m assuming those are the original ladders that led the way up here. I’m glad I got here after the metal stairs were installed.

The views were worth it. That’s the Mun Bon reservoir down there. And I’m still amazed at how rock formations like the one above even happen. Those rocks look ready to slide any day now. Crazy!

Ok, now I head to the next stop. It’s taken me three days to start feeling better after those wasps. But my headache finally went away, I’m eating again, and the swelling around the sting sites is going down. The only one that’s still bothering me is the tip of my right index finger, but I’m sure it won’t last too long. Next up, I take a break from the ruins and get into some nature… without wasps please and thank you. Stay tuned…