Ancient Khmer Ruins Tour: Sisaket and Surin.
Well perhaps not ancient, but ranging from their 9th Century Khmer period.
I recently did a tour of Isaan which included one day touring the Khmer ruins of Sisaket and one day touring the Khmer ruins of Surin.
Sisaket:
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Which interestingly enough also brought me 1/2 a Km or so into Cambodia on a few occasions. :)
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One thing I love about biking around the Border regions of Burma and Cambodia is crossing over into the countries while out on the back roads, there's some quite romantic about covertly crossing over into these exotic and far flung states while riding through ancient villages that really only exist in Vietnam war movies to most Westerners... Anyway.
I began by heading into Phra Wihan National Park to see if I could sneak up to the temple. :) And also enjoy the twisting mountain roads, look over Pa Mo I-Daeng and head down to the oldest Buddist reliefs in Thailand (?) and explore a bit too.
The view of Cambodia from on top of Pa Mo I-Daeng cliff.
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Down over the cliff face to the oldest bas reliefs in Thailand, I think. :)
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Off exploring on a road, Thailand: Green, Cambodia: White.
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Nowadays I wonder how I ever lived without a GPS. Funny how things change.
On top of the cliff in the army camp.
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Still a no go to the actual temple.
But the start of a great day's riding and exploring under clear blue skies and fresh clean air. :)
Prasat Don Tuan. Cambodia.
Namtok Samrong Kiat Waterfall.
Prasat Wat Sa Kampaeng Yai.
On the road through lovely Isaan. :)
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And on to Prasat Wat sa Kampaeng Yai.
Which as the name suggests, is a big ass temple complex.
Quote:
This large Khmer sanctuary has 3 pagodas on the same base. The main pagoda is the middle one built of sandstone and bricks. Its beautiful shape is still intact. Lintels, Buddha images, fired clay Buddha image prints, and bronze artwork have been found here. This sanctuary was built in the 16th Buddhist century as an offering to the god Shiva. It was later transformed into a Buddhist temple in the Mahayana sect in the 18th Buddhist century.
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I like the shadows on this one.
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Big Brother.
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I don't know either.
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And on that note it was time for a massage parlour and decent scrub down. Food. And back to base. Think the next day was a tour of Ubon Ratchathani's waterfalls, but will stick the Khmer Ruins Tour of Surin on to this.