My initial idea was to go on a week long trip to complete Mae Hong Son loop and touch Chiang rai (to visit the white temple). But, due to other reasons, my trip needs to be shortened to only four days. so, dropped the original idea and wanted to drive some part of Isaan from Bangkok airport. When I was reading the internet, there are many forums where self-driving in Thailand (especially Bangkok) was discouraged. As I have no plans to go into Bangkok, decided to book my car anyway. It turned out to be a right decision.
The day started at early morning when my flight to Bangkok left at 7am from Changi and landed at Bangkok at 8.30am. Getting to the counter to get my visa on arrival is a mess. Though the immigration queues are well maintained, they really didn't bother to regulate the crowd at the visa on arrival counter. Interestingly, they had an fast track as well. It was mentioned that the fast track is for elderly, children etc. But anybody can queue up at the fast track and it is less crowded (may be others thought that it is for the reason for which it is supposed to be). But fast track is really fast and they can chop the visa within minutes. Coming out of the airport, I collected my car (Toyota altis 1.6), stocked snacks from a 7-11 and started my first drive into Thailand.
I had initial difficulty getting out of the airport and on the the right highway (Route 2). I had to go one round back to the airport again but eventually got onto the right highway. Within first 15 to 20 minutes, I went past all Bangkok city exits and felt fully comfortable driving. My first stop is 320 km from Bangkok airport which I guess will take 5 hours. As I have a long way to cover in today's itinerary, I didn't stop much on the highway. The food that I stocked at the Bangkok airport came handy along my drive. Some 2 hours into the drive, I saw a line of fruit shops at the road side and they are waving any car that goes at the left most line. I stopped at one of these shops. only then I realized that the are selling fruits whole-sale and it is not really a setup to cut a fruit and eat there. The only familiar fruit I could see is Jackfruit and i had a very difficult time trying ask the lady whether they can cut the fruit for me. I guess managing with English is going to be tougher going into the Isaan region. Took this stop to stretch myself a bit though I didn't buy (rather couldn't) any fruits. Google maps in my phone is very accurate until I parked my car at Phimai national park. Google maps proved to be a must-have companion throughout the trip into Isaan.
After about 5 hours drive, I parked my car in front of Phimai historic park. It is a small
car park that can take about 30 cars and in the middle of the Phimai town. Luckily I got a parking lot. My today's and tomorrow's trip covers some of the ruins that is part of the Cambodia's Angkor Wat regime. As I visited Angkor last year and spent 5 days around the Angkor complex, it sounded good for me to wrap that up with the temples in Thailand that were built by the same kingdom. Looking at the Phimai temple, I can connect the structure and scriptures to the ones in Cambodia. The Phimai temple's restoration is not as good as most of the temples in Cambodia and except for the main sanctum, others are "restored" only by piling many stones in right structural form. So the number of clear Bas reliefs are less.
With the experience of visiting may Angkor Wat temples, I could still able to click some of the Bas relief. Here is one with Brahma
It is already about 5pm and I have to drive my way to Nang Rong which is where I had my
accommodation booked. It is a 100 km drive and I prefer not to drive at nights. But, while driving, at about 6pm, it started becoming dark. As it is more of open fields, there are many small flies that were flying towards the car and suicide themselves all over in front of my car. I drove into the small street of Nang Rong at about 7.30pm and with little difficulty, parked my car at P.California hotel for staying the night.
