The City of Sandstone Sanctuaries| Land of Volcanoes | Beautiful Silk | Rich Culture
Before the Journey : The City of Prasat (temple) and Civilization
Buriram Province, Southern Northeastern Land of Thailand

When we talk about the Northeastern (E-San) of Thailand, many people would say it has nothing to offer.
And exactly because of this nothingness that we want to see it.
Why??!! Because there's always something in nothing. Oh, the more I talk, the more it get confused, haha. Ok, let be real now, actually I like to travel to enjoy Thai traditions and festivals. Ok, let's see what we have in this month.
Oh wow! So this month it is a tradition to walk up to Phanomrung Temple. You might have seen the sun rise through several doors at the same time right? Well, this is the natural phenomenon that will occur in Buriram and we also want to experience it for real.
Shall we start this journey now? Even if you don't want to read, but this Video also cannot provide everything because a lot has happened here.

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Mai-Kee-Baht Program | Buriram
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Start the Journey : By Train

We start our journey from Hua Lamphong Railway Station.
Our ticket is 177 THB for Bangkok-Ubon Ratchathani route. The train leaves at 22.30 p.m.
Our destination is Buriram Station......Ok, let's get this journey started.

The cold.....on the train

Even though now is the summer, but traveling by train at night is so....super cold.

It is so cold that I get a cold and sneeze all the way. The window also can't be closed, why it has to be broken now??!!

6.00 a.m. : Destination Station

After enduring 8 hours of the cold, we now arrive at Buriram Province.
So then, what to do now? To go where and how??
Let's think about it later, now let's find something to eat first. Then I look around but cannot think of anything, all I can see is the scooter services and Tuk Tuk.
Boy, where do you want to go and how? They keep asking me but...I need to think.....haha.

Then I found Chum Phae noodle shop located opposite to the railway station. Here it is, our first meal at Buriram is 35 THB.

You have come this far just to eat this noodle? Ok, ok, relax, this is just the appetizer, haha.

While we are eating, we also try to find out what are the attractions nearby. What we found is soccer field, soccer field, and soccer field.

Oh my, what is this!! Soccer field is not really my dish. Then, we found this, Khao Kradong Volcano!

Volcano? Wow, sounds good, let's go. On how to get there, we ask from the noodle shop.

She said we need to hop on the pink Song Taew on the opposite side. Ok, then, let's go!! Auntie, bill please.

Suddenly stop but didn't tell us anything, uncle!
And here is the Song Taew that we take, it has such a sweet color just like us.
Oh, before going up, you should ask them whether they go to Khao Kradong or not as there's really many lines.
Otherwise, you might not reach there.
Once we reach, I was about to complain on him of why he stops for a long time, almost 5 minutes.
I thought he stops to wait for passengers, but.....he stops to let us down, hahaha.
I look to left and right and see the sign reads 'Welcome to Khao Kradong'. So it's our stop...
I feel so shy now once I know the entire car is waiting for us to get off, haha. I think it takes only about 10 minutes from the railway station......
to reach Khao Kradong.....

Are we really going up?

The first thing you see when you step off from the car is something like movie scene in the rural area.

Oh, are you really going up? Our bag is very heavy and the stairs are so high up. We are going to be really tired.

Here it is. The top is the Khao Kradong, the extinct volcano since 900,000 years ago.

Oh well, that we are already here and the taxi is already gone! Let's just go up. I think my friend was thinking, "yeah right, you already brought me here, what can I do?"

Let's take a closer look of this height. You still have time to change your mind!!

Are you still up for it? !!!

Well, no choice, let's just go up. It's only something more than 300 stairs. I think we can reach there in no time.

But...it's not that easy. It's quite steep, we take about half an hour, haha.

And while we are taking rest, we get to see this view. I'm thinking "the view up there must be more beautiful than this."

How can we reach to this point, when we look down and thinking to ourselves, are we really walking up here? haha.

But the view is really beautiful. I want yo all to come and see this view here too.

While we are still thinking....

"the view up there must be more beautiful than this."

"the view up there must be more beautiful than this."

"the view up there must be more beautiful than this."

And this first thing we see is this gigantic Buddha Image.

In fact, we can see this afar from the entrance.

Supattarakul Bophit Buddha is the Buddha image of this province.

If you happen to come to Buriram or Khao Kradong, please come and pay respect here.

It looks like you are appreciating the Buddha Image. You are tired, I know, because I'm also tired, haha.

We walk into another peak to realize something. The "slider" as we know actually comes from E-San.

Here, they call it "si-lai-der" (literally means you will slide), haha. Let's try it out, I think if the water is here too, it could go very fast.

Once we slide down, we see the mouth of the volcano which had extincted over 900,000 years ago.
I think it must be very beautiful when it's still active.

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12.00 p.m. Nangrong District

We travel to Nangrong District because this district locates Prasat Phanom Rung and Prasat Muang Tam.
So we want to stay here and travel to these places.
From Khao Kradong, we take the same pink Song Taew back to Buriram Bus Station.
Then we take the van from there to Nangrong District. It takes about an hour and it is 38 THB.
Once we arrive at Nangrong, we ask the staff of how we can go to this hotel.
He said we can take this bus. It is 10 THB. We are very expert on asking.

*** I want to recommend a bit for someone who is new to travel. In fact, we are also not so expert, haha.
If you are afraid of getting lost or don't know how to go where, you can stop by at the Bus Terminal first. I'm sure you will get some clue.
For hotels, around the Bus Terminal has to offer the most. **

Well, how can we get to Prasat Phanom Rung?

Once we arrive at the hotel, they said they are going to Prasat Phanom Rung, do we want to go along? Oh wow........
This is like a heaven sound. Of course, we want to go too. Let's take the hotel photos later. We immediately leave our luggage at the hotel and go.
It is not so far from our hotel, roughly about half an hour but the route is a bit steep.

Here we are......Khao Phanom Rung

It seems like there's some activity going on today.

Usually, the entrance fee is 20 THB. But when there's festival or any activity, it is free. Quite strange.

Usually, when there's a fair, we should collect the fee right? haha. This also confuses me, but let it be.

I have to thank P'Jew and Po, the staff of the hotel who bring us here.

Let's see what Khao Phanom Rung has to offer?

We walk up to the Prasat (temple) right away to quickly take photos.

There'll also be a parade today, so worth a visit today!

It is so incredibly and amazingly beautiful. And here is the beauty of Prasat Khao Phanom Rung.

Yet, today there's also a parade.

It is a procession of Pranang Phupathintara Lakshmi Devi and the 10 gods' vehicles.

It is extremely grand and spectacular.

"The blowing horn is reverberate throughout the mountains amid the quiet realm of the sacred.
The convoy of 10 gods' vehicles of which were beautifully decorated moved into the corridor between the poles
and the walkway towards the Naga staircase. While the procession is passing, girls are pouring flowers to welcome the procession of Pranang Phupathintara Lakshmi Devi."

The Procession of 10 Gods' Vehicles who safeguard the 10 Directions

Pranang Phupathintara Lakshmi Devi

I really want you all to come experience this greatness of Buriram Province.
Going up Khao Phanom Rung will be held every early April.

You can check it out. If you miss this year, you can try it next early April.

What's more? You can also visit the OTOP (One Tambon One Product) of Buriram here.
Everyone will bring their products here. It's like coming to one place, you've traveled to the entire province.

After we are full, the performance is still there.
Tonight there's a performance of Phanom Rung Maha Tevalai.
It narrates the history of this temple of why it was built and of what is was for (if the information is wrong, please accept my apology).

Let's imagine the Prasat Khao Phanom Rung with the light and sound amid stars like this, what could you ask more?

It is really a rare atmosphere to be found elsewhere.

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The 2nd Day with Nangrong District
Today, we plan to roam around with the rental scooter from the hotel.
It is 100 THB per day, let's go!
But before that, let's explore the hotel a bit.

We stay here at Phanom Rung Buri hotel. It is a rocky style hotel.
Staying here, I also feel like I stay close to Khao Phanom Rung. It is very comfy here too.

In front of the hotel is the swimming pool with special management system to ensure the water is always clear.

And!!!!!!!!!!!! this is our heaven, haha. There's a bar near the swimming pool, this is how it ought to be, so good.
For the bedroom, there's two beds with a private bathroom, awesome.

If you are interested, you can stop by for a night of simply for a meal, the hotel is more than happy to welcome you.
The service is great. For more information, please click Phanom Rung Buri hotel

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Ok, it's time to explore : Hesitation
At first, we were thinking to capture the sunlight shining through the doors at Khao Phanom Rung.
But the staff said the light is not always shining through. So!!! what should we do now? We got hesitated.
So we asked him where can we have good first light shots, he recommends us to go up.
There, we will see rice field and we could capture some beautiful shots.
We ride for a while and stop at this place. I don't know where it is, all we see is buffaloes and cows.
Certainly, after stopping, we take photos.....

That's right, it looks at my camera too. This is the country side life. I'm so envy of this kind of life.
It'd be so good to see something like this everyday.

7 a.m. start to feel hungry : Go to Nangrong Fresh Market

Let's go to the fresh market. It is quite easy to come here from the hotel, just riding straight.
Once we cross the intersection, it is this Nangrong Fresh Market. Let's go find breakfast here.

The food is like any other places but quite a variety. You can choose whatever you want to eat.

Ok, now we are full, let's continue : Start with the Prasat in front of our alley (soi)

Prasat Nong Bua Lai

In fact, there's a lot of small and big Prasat (literally means castle). We can see it almost everywhere we go.
Let's start with this Prasat Nong Bua Lai. This place looks like a hospital that everyone comes when they got sick.

2nd Prasat : Prasat Muang Tam

After that, we continue our roaming around mission. We continue to ride not so far from there.

I also can't tell you the direction, haha. I just use Google Map and go wherever.

Now we come to another stop, Prasat Muang Tam. Once we reach, my friend exclaims "Oh wow!" Of course, not because of the hot weather.

But because of the beauty and splendor of this place. It is truly extraordinary.

I start to wonder how beautiful it could have been in the past?

Now, let's study about its history a bit. This Prasat was named Muang Tam (Lower town) due to it's located on the lower town.
Really, I'm serious. Its location is lower than Prasat Phanom Rung, so it was named "Muang Tam".
It is 8 km. away from Prasat Phanom Rung. There's 4 water pools surrounding the temple in an L shape, looking very beautiful.

It is beautiful in every angle. I really want you all to visit once at Prasat Muang Tam.
Yet, today we will go tour more Prasat.
We are heading towards Khao Ankhan, but between that, we will stop at another temple first.

3rd Prasat : Kuti Rishi Ban Khok Muang (Hermit Home at Khok Muang)

Sometimes, traveling daytime doesn't make us any less scared.
Especially where there's no people around. Especially when we come to this ancient place with this complete quietness.
I start to feel uneasy, haha. I think let's just quickly take photos and move on.

On the way to Khao Ankhan

It is so hot along the way to Khao Ankhan, but the view along the view amazed us so much that we must stop for photography.

Well, we will see this kind of endless rice field all along the way.
After riding a while with the extreme heat, now we reach Khao Ankhan with dust.

Finally we arrive : Khao Ankhan

May I get stunned a while for the beauty of this place before I start saying something?
Well, when I arrive. I'm truly stunned. I've never seen this kind of temple. How should I explain?

Well, can I just simply say it is so beautiful. The first glimpse is the wall that is surrounded by the Buddha images.
The temple is orange brick which is beautifully contrasting with the blue sky. It's just a perfect combination.

The unseen or the highlight of this temple that we can see from afar is the Buddha images surrounded this wall, which altogether it has about 109 Buddha images.

Khao Pra Ankhan is said in the historical Phanom manuscript that:
In B.C. 8, the relics (Phra Ankhan That) of the Buddha was enshrined at this mountain.
Another place that stunned me is the building of Phra Mondop. It is so delicate and beautiful.
All the works are very delicate and inside also enshrines a very unique Buddha pose image. How unique is it? Let's go find out together.

And this is the unique posture of the Buddha image that I was talking about.
I really don't know what posture is this Buddha image, if you know, please let me know.
I do want you to come see it for yourself. Wat Khao Ankhan is really beautiful, especially if you like architectural photography, you won't be disappointed here as it's really unique.


Ok, let's go home now! On the way back, I'm so thirsty so we are looking for either coffee, cold beverages or just anything to ease out the thirst.
Then we find this Phu Rung coffee shop. So we sit and relax for a while.
Here we have water and I also try green tea.

Ban Khanom Phu Rung

It looks more like a souvenir shop with so many types of sweets.
But we are more thirsty. While we are enjoying our time here, the owner comes to see us, so we run, haha.
No, he just comes and talks with us so we ask him what is the highlight menu here.

He recommends coffee, he said it's like no other place.
How's it like? !!

It's regular coffee beans and looks indifferent. No no, not like that.
We can't drink it like this, we must grind it first. But I don't have coffee knowledge.
He said the coffee here is very soft and nice that we don't have to add creamer.
The color is good without creamer, show me please.

Oh yeah!!! It is quite strange that the coffee has this color without adding any creamer.
Still, I'm not a coffee lover, can you recommend any sweet instead?
So he said, let's try this custard bread with lots of custard stuffing?

Ok now, this looks more like our taste, let's try it.

Ohhhh Wowwwwwwwwwww, it feels something like this.
In between, where is my friend?!

Oh no, you eat without waiting for me!
Not yet finish, he also recommend something more interesting which is difficult to find elsewhere, Sommanut.
What is it!!!!

It tastes like cookie but it's not. It is traditional Thai sweet made from coconut and natural sugar (Coconut Meringue). It is very delicious. I would love to encourage you try here at Ban Khanom Phu Rung.

Where should we go for tonight?
We were thinking to just chill and relax at the hotel but the staff at the hotel encourages us to go to walking street as there're a lot of food.
Oh wow, I didn't think that the country side like this also have walking street, let's go check it out.

Thommued Thommo Market

Who said country side has nothing to offer?
Oh well, here they have walking street.
And what I like about this place is that they let students to play music to build up the atmosphere and they play really well.
Especially under this atmosphere, we enjoy shopping so much.
Another great thing is the local language that we hear all along the way.
It is harmoniously blend in with this modern setting.
The walking street I'm talking about is Thommued Thommo Market.
I want you to also come try it out. It opens every Fridays and Saturdays from 16.00-20.00 p.m.

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The last day at Nangrong, I'd like to go to the old temple nearby. And that temple is Wat Khun Kong.

Wat Khun Kong

When coming to new place and we don't know where to go, temple is recommended.

It allows us to understand the history of that place. Wat Khun Kong ages over 400 years.

What is more strange about this temple is that, we usually see the giants or the mythical creatures standing at the gate, but here.......it is the soldiers.

I also wonder why it is the statue of soldiers?

Here is the front of Wat Khun Kong which has soldier standing instead of giant.

When I read its history, I realize why.

Previously, this temple named after the soldier "Khun Kong" and was built in Ayutthaya period by this soldier.

He was the supplier soldier during when King Naresuan and Ekathotsaro fought with Khmer.

So here, they built the soldier statue instead of giants. It is quite unique and I encourage you to also come take a look.

A little bit more before going back
We want to ride a bit longer.
So we ride to find this Nong Tamu reservoir which is very beautiful.
I've missed it! If I were to know earlier then I will come jump into this water under this hot weather already.

Nong Tamu Reservoir

I really do miss a great deal!!!

What a missssssssss!!!!!

While we are staying at Nangrong, I must say that the weather is really hot but it's really refreshing and cool at heart.
It made us forgot how hot the weather is because here it has more thing for us to do than in the city.
You can also come feel it yourself at Nangrong, Buriram Province and you will fall in love with this country side like me.

Anyhow, do not let the money becomes your excuse of not going out for traveling.

Let's travel with us, Mai-Kee-Baht team:

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