Phanom Rung

Last I wrote here, I was on my way to take a tour of Khao Yai. Well the tour was mostly a bust, and a rip-off on several levels, none of which I need to get into here. One highlight (?) though--there was a male elephant in the road that we needed felt we needed to pass. The elephant disagreed. Everytime we got within maybe 30 yards of him, he'd start charging the truck. A motorbike was sort of creeping on his tail, thinking he'd be safe from behind. Wrong. The elephant turned tail so fast on that motorbike--think: the most nimble sumo wrestler you've ever seen--and the guy just barely escaped.

Anyway, I took a bus the next morning to go 3 hours east to the town (read: "town" with air quotes) of Nang Rong, which is the closest place to Phanom Rung Historical Park. I got in around noon and quickly hopped on the back of a moto-taxi--actually wound up hopping on and off of a few, since the first guy broke down halfway up the mountain and I had to hitch it the rest of the way up. In any case, I made it to Prasat Phanom Rung.

This was one of those lose-your-breath kind of places. Partly because it's at a higher altitude and it's a million degrees out and there's no shade...but mostly because of the ruins. Here's a good site with pictures of the place: http://www.sundial.thai-isan-lao.com/phanom_rung.html, and there are also a few good ones on my photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/almarcus3408/KhaoYaiPhanomRungAndAngkorWat#

The Phanom Rung ones are toward the beginning on there. Anyway, the main ruins in the area are on top of this extinct volcano, with a real stunning view of the rice paddies in the valley below. Before you get to the ruins there is, in typical wat/temple fashion, a gorgeous but sort of arduous approach--a long stone pathway with all sorts of guardian statues, followed by some seriously steep steps. Steep as in, you have to use your hands and feet together to climb up the wall of steps. Once you're up there, the sun and the shadows and the beautiful light orange-red sandstone make a stunning combo. The sculptures on the outside are so well-preserved and very 3-dimensional (as opposed to the carvings at Angkor which, while incredibly detailed and aesthetically amazing, are bas-reliefs in stone and so they are much flatter). The style of the prangs (towers) was a good introduction to Angkorean architecture though. A sort of smaller, though maybe equally beautiful, Angkor Wat. A good appetizer, anyway.

After that, I kept going with my super-unreliable moto-taxi driver---this thing was like the Little Engine that Almost Could---over to Meaung Tam, one of the minor, though still really fun, ruins in the area.

Not only were the ruins awesome, but I was pretty much feeling like a boy-band member minus the talent--like a member of 98 Degrees that isn't Nick Lachey. About 5 different groups of between 3 and 10 girls each kept on grabbing my arm and giggling and getting their pictures taken with me. The boys in the groups had to suffer the humiliation of being the picture-takers haha. Now, allegedly this happens all the time with Thais and farangs (Westerners)--but I was really only getting the 12-16 female crowd. I know my demo, and I accept this.

One more thought--I vastly preferred Phanom Rung to either Khao Yai or Ayuthaya, and I think it was primarily because of the location. The "tourists" at Phanom Rung were almost exclusively Thais, and the town of Nang Rong is pretty far off the typical backpacker trail. Maybe I ran into 15 or 20 Westerners--including those at my guest house--over the course of my two days there.