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Peacoffee had already warned me not to expect to much going on on a monday and new years day in Surin. As we entered town the first thing i saw was a group of pretty girls, Good start
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Checked in to the old and slightly jaded Tongtarin hotel.
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I crossed from Cambodia to Thailand @ the O'smach Border Post south of Surin in 2010. The Cambo's were rebuilding the entire Hwy. It was a mess. Thai GF & I travelled in hop on/off taxi. The driver was good. He knew the road construction well. 15 km south of the border, the Hwy Construction stopped at a huge cliff. The taxi chugged off down a faint track in the Jungle. I was more than a bit concerned. We got to the border safely. I gave the driver a huge tip. The Thai Immigration Officer spoke very good English. He told us that many travellers going south were robbed. We evidently were lucky.
Having spent 3 days in Siem reap in 2010; I went back there in 2015 for 9 days. I toured all over the 50 mile square Siem Reap Area & still didn't see it all. I'll go back there again. I found the street vendor food in Cambodia to be much better than Thailand. Excellent beer in Cambodia.
I also went to the Plain of Jars in 2010. many of the 1 km straight sections of the Hwy were actually Lima CIA Landing strips during the secret War in Laos. The Lao govt connected them up into the present hwy. There are 2 very large Stupas near Phonsovan. You can see the existing fill area of what must have been very large temples centuries prior. The wooden Wat Temples were sacked by various invaders. This was the eastern Opium Route leading from Kumming China, Vietnam to Nong Khai & on to Chiang Rai & Chiang Mai, for some 300-500 years.
I visited Pakse, Champasak & Wat Phu in 2011. Obviously there had to be a big population to justify such a large temple complex in the 11-13th centuries.