Pee My

I had to spell Phimai like Peemai so I could remember how it was pronounced - I decided to share that little bit of scary insight into my brain through today's title.

Phimai

Day One

We went from one city with no tourists right into another. This one I really enjoyed though. You didn't get the same "outsider" feeling that you got in Udon Thani and there were a lot less people who decided to spend their free time staring at you. It was a nice, much needed, break. Our first day was pretty much spent on a number of buses. You cannot take a bus directly from Udon Thani to Phimai - instead you have to hit Khorat (also known as Nakhon Ratchasima) and take a bus from there to Phimai. All in all we spent over 7 hours in transit. Once we arrived in Phimai it was too late to really do anything (not to mention we didn't have any money and the banks were all closed).

Interesting side note...

This was the first city we've encountered where our handy Let's Go guide was not completely accurate in its descriptions. We decided that it must be because they haven't sent someone to Phimai in a while and things have changed. The first guesthouse we went to, which got a thumbs up in our book, was not that impressive. We decided to up our daily spending budget and get as nice room at Boonsiri Guesthouse. The owners were really nice and were actually willing to barter the price down 100 baht (probably because we were their only clients!).

We had exactly 140 baht in our pocket which was to buy us dinner and water. We found one of the only restaurants in town and spent exactly 135 baht - we had 5 baht to our name :) After dinner we called it an early night - we were pretty tired after a day of long traveling.

Day Two

We got up fairly early (for us) to find it raining outside. Since one of our sites was outdoors we were pretty bummed, but by the time we were showered and ready to go it had stopped. Although we stayed dry we were quite cold during the day. This seems to be a trend since leaving Laos - we haven't had a warm day in what seems like weeks. Our first stop was Phimai Historical Park which is made up of a bunch of Khmer style (same style as Ankor Wat in Cambodia) ruins. The park was beautiful and reminded us a lot of the ruins we saw in Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. Our favourite part was the large prang in the middle of the park which is now overrun with pidgeons (they were insane!!).

After the park we headed to Phimai National Museum which houses many of the original artifacts taken from the national park as well as a detailed history on the Issan people. Many of the carving and statues contained images of Hindu Gods (such as Ganesh, Vishnu and Shiva) and from as early as the 9th century. It was amazing to see the combination of Hindu and Buddhist religions - most of the time within the same temple. Unfortunately, as with most museums, we could not take any photos so you will have to take our word for it. :)

Our last stop of the day was to see Thailand's largest Banyan tree named Sai Ngam. We were not sure at all what to expect because neither of us knew what banyan tree was. Needless to say we were not disappointed. The book described the tree as "entering a J.R.R. Tolkien inspired netherworld" and they were not far off. We haven't been able to get our photos uploaded yet so here is a great website so you can see what we saw: http://www.bangkoksite.com/NakhonRatchasima/SaiNgam.htmThat night after a great dinner at this little place that was down an alley, we happened upon a soccer game. The night before we were kept up until fairly late by Thai pop music, an enthusiastic announcer and the occasional roar from an audience - we now knew where it was coming from. We stayed for about an hour and only left because we were both way too cold. They played on concrete and the ball was quite a bit harder then a traditional soccer ball and the nets were half the size of a hockey net There were six players on each side and from what Paul could tell the rules seemed to be the same as the soccer we are used to. It was a lot of fun to watch these guys and their fancy footwork (and don't forget - on concrete!).

Back to Bangkok

Today we were up at 4:30 a.m. and started what proved to be a very very long day of traveling. Again, there was no direct transportation from Phimai (which might be why no one goes there - a shame really because the historical park was great) so we had to bus our buts back to Khorat. The bus ride was freezing and for the first time we wished that we had brought warmer clothing. Once arriving there we made our way to the train station. We had hoped on saving a few baht on the train and in that regard we were pleasantly surprised. It took us five hours in a third class train but we almost made it to Bangkok. I say almost because it didn't actually go all the way to the train station in the city. If we wanted a direct train we would have had to wait over two hours and pay five times more (it was a second class train with "air con" and trust me we didn't need it).

Once arriving at the Bang Sue station we thought it would be nice and simple - just buy a ticket to Bangkok. Only one catch - the train didn't leave for another hour and it was already 2pm. We knew if we waited around we risked not being able to find a guesthouse to stay for the night. The nice lady at the ticket booth told us to try the subway. Now a month ago we would have been terrified at the prospect of wandering around a city we didn't have a map for to try and find a subway station, nevermind actually use the subway system. Paul actually said "I don't even like the subway in Toronto" but we decided to brave it anyway. I must say, I am so glad that we did. The subway system was cheap, simple to use and extremely modern. It got us to Bangkok in under 30 minutes.

We found ourselves a decent place to stay for the next two nights. We are staying right in the heart of Khosan road this time. Our first place (Shanti Lodge) was a bit removed from the hustle and bustle of this backpacking scene so we thought we'd mix up our experiences a bit. Now I can honestly say I've never seen so many white people in Thailand then we are experiencing right now. There seems to be about 5 farang to every Thai person - talk about opposite experience from Eastern Thailand. We are planning to leave on the 24th and make our way back up to Ayutthaya again to spend Christmas. We thought it would be nice to chill there for a few days and maybe take a river cruise on Christmas eve. That's it for now. We will probably write again when we reach Ayutthaya. Until then...

MERRY CHRISTMAS (and Yule) and HAPPY NEW YEAR!!