We left our stuff in the rooms and headed out to tour the ruins. As I mentioned, the ruins pre-date the Angor Wat ruins by about one century as these were built in late 8th century. But what is amazing is that they ruins all face the exact direction to where Angor Wat is located...so they must of known something then!! I've been to Angor Wat in Cambodia several times and it is just truly amazing (and was voted one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world last year). Colin also had been to Angor Wat and we both remarked how similar the construction and design of the Phi Mai ruins were to Angor Wat. I'll post pictures in several days. But I'm glad we stopped here and took the time to tour these amazing ruins and walk around the city. The city is actually even older than Ayuthaya the ancient capital of Thailand located about 150K north of Bangkok.
These are all photos of the ruins at Phi Mai which, in design architecture are very much similar to what is in Cambodia at Angor Wat. The ruins at Phi Mai predate Angor Wat by about 2 centuries...and yet....the Phi Mai ruins are on an exact direct line toward Angor Wat; the longitude is almost precisely the same, according to the booklet we read. We really enjoyed our stop at Phi Mai.We got the bikes loaded and underway at 12:30 pm. Initially (again that damn map!) we thought the ride to Nakthon Ratchasima would only be 55K...but again...get outside of town and well, it turned to a lot more. Normally, we wouldn't even blink at 80K...a cakewalk. But in this heat and humidity on the major highway, the heat really gets to you..no shade or relief. At noon I found us another noodle shop and we filled up on noodles and ice cold cokes. From there, I had us stop every 15K to get out of the sun and cool down.
I had a hell of a time keeping Colin away from these dried fish strung on a leather string!! Ha!! Yummy!!!We arrived in Nakthon Ratchasima and then again...friggn Lonely Planet map...we couldn't find our way to the hotel we were looking for. We ended up in this market area and people looked at us like we'd come from another planet! If we hadn't been hurting so bad...it would of been hilarious! Finally some guy came to our recue alongside the road while we were stopped for 30 min trying to figure out the damn map and where we were and where the hotel was. He took pity on us and hopped on his motorbike and said he'd show us. Well, he got us to this main road through back alley turns and then said...right turn, left turn...2 more rights..well, you get the gist of this! And we were still lost!!! And another guy came to the rescue. Finally we found the hotel or what we thought was the correct hotel (it wasn't but who cared!) and got two rooms with AC, cable TV and hot water for only 400 baht a night. So we booked 2 nights here. Nakthon Ratchasima is another of those cities that during the Vietnam War, the US had a huge US Airforce base here for bombing runs of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.
After showers and customary beer, we headed out for food...and again...rice and chicken with basil and chiles.........I'm addicted to this Thai dish, I swear!!! It must also help with me shedding weight as I've dropped, I think about 15 lbs or more from this trip. Something I needed!
Ride on
Len
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