Nong Kai ➡️ Udon Thani ➡️ Khon Kaen ➡️ Phimai

For the past few days we have been traveling through Isan, which is the northeastern part of Thailand. As I mentioned in my last post, our hotel in Udon Thani had a great pool with a diving board 🏊! I miss it already!

In Udon Thani, we walked over to Rajabahat University to check it out and were totally surprised to see that it was graduation day!!!!

There was a food court, a couple basketball courts, and many interesting decorations that looked like it took a really long time to complete. Maybe the students started working on them last summer!

The funny thing was that some students had already finished their degrees last year and had to come back for the ceremony•__•! Weird, huh?

In Udon Thani, we also visited the night markets where we got a great supper of salted grilled fish, fried rice (you know me!), and fruit shakes.

The next day, we caught a rusty old 3rd class train going to Khon Kaen. I considered it 1st class for all of the AC coming through the windows, the friendliness of the other passengers, and the excellent padding on the metal seats! Sure, it could’ve used a little touch up on the sound cancellation, a little oil for the windows, or a bit of dusting, but it’s great the way it is – particularly when the ticket to go 60 miles was only 80¢! That’s roughly 1.3¢ per mile!

We arrived in Khon Kaen and within about ten minutes encountered our first barking dog in the city. The guy standing next to him yelled ‘Blllaaahhh’ at the dog and thrust his arm out. That dog didn’t want a piece of him and stopped. We arrived at our hotel and were blown away by our room👍! Even though it didn’t cost very much, it was very luxurious😎 and that’s my style!🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

That night I shared a Tom ‘Yum’ Goong (which I’m getting a taste for) and a crab fried rice with my parents and downed another CHICKEN FRIED RICE😂😄👍🍛!

The next morning I had Kao Man Gai and ordered some Thai Iced Tea but instead got a bubble gum flavored drink that I kind of liked😕😌👍👎🎭. In Khon Kaen, we visited the night markets. That seems to be our favorite thing to do. We met a guy from Missouri and a girl from Hopkinton, Massachusetts.

After a couple of days in Khon Kaen, we took another train to Khorat (Nakhon Ratchasima). This time, my seatmate was a little white dog!

Then we took a mini-bus to Phimai and got dropped off right near our bungalow on the Moon River. There are a couple of dogs around here that at first I was scared of but now I like! I nicknamed them Junior, Browny, and Lokey, although they probably have other Thai names! Mom and I also took a little canoe out on the little river that went under a little bridge. That was hugely fun! Even when we crashed into some lily pads. For supper, we headed to the night market (surprised?) and ended up getting fried kway theow (fried noodles).

The whole reason we came to Phimai was to visit some ancient ruins here. Today I went to a Khmer Temple (the Khmer Empire controlled most of present-day Thailand, all of Cambodia, and parts of Vietnam before any borders of countries existed) called Phimai Phra Sing.

Within the Temple’s walls there is the Naga Bridge and the passage behind it symbolizing the connection between Earth and Heaven! The Main Temple was made to practice Hinduism and Buddhism, which means there are carvings from both religions in the same temple.

The temple in Phimai was connected to Angkor in present day Cambodia by a very important road, but it doesn’t exist anymore today.

Just before we left the temple, we stumbled on this lizard hanging out in one of the trees:

Tomorrow, we will head to Ayutthaya, which apparently has more ruins. I will let you know how it is!