Phimai Historical Park

On exiting the Khao Kho area along Route 12, the road follows an Easterly direction through the Petchabun valley.  In then goes through another range of lower hills, namely the Nam Nao National Park.  Not as spectacular or visually stunning as Khao Kho but still a very nice road with a good range of bends, twists, and undulating hills.

Thailand never ceases to impress me.  One of the great things that people underestimate is it’s diversity and respect to other cultures and religions. Stopping at a military checkpoint,  named the Nam Nao Check point, I was impressed to see this sign indicating a prayer area for Muslims.  I certainly didn’t expect that this far North.

I planned a route that would take us through the country side and around the Khuaen Bon Reservoir.  Little did I know what to expect.  I turned left along the route and was confronted by this dirt road in Tambon Non Kok.  Alvin gave the nod to proceed, so we did albeit tentatively.  My GS literally flew along the dirt and sand track, but Alvin tottered along carefully and 15 minutes later we were back on asphalt.  Phew !!

The rest of the ride was relatively straightforward but interesting riding through rice fields and agricultural lands.  We rode around the outskirts of Chaiyaphum and Nakhon Ratchasima thus avoiding heavy traffic and arriving to Phimai Historical Park around 3pm.

Phimai Historical Park surrounds one of the most important Khmer temples in Thailand and is in line with the Ancient Khmer expressway to Angkor Wat in Cambodia and dates back to the 11th & 12th Century.  We spent a good hour walking through the ruins and gardens area which are quite well maintained.

After viewing the park it was a case of finding a hotel or a place to stay.  Not having booked, Alvin found something quite close by on Google.  Riding over to the Moon River Resort, the owner had rooms available for the fantastic price of 500 baht (20 SGD or 10 GBP), including breakfast.  And the rooms were quite nice too.  Cabin type bungalows facing the river with Bike parking right outside.  Very nice !!.  Then it was off to dinner, and a walk through the night market.

Dinner turned out to be a bit of an experience.  We couldn’t find anything that suited our needs, especially as I needed something that was Halal or not containing meats etc. and that was harder than we imagined.  So it was a mix of food from 7-Eleven and a Pizza stand that we had seen earlier.

Earlier in the day at the Historical park was a policeman who was very keen to have his photo taken with us bikers.  Lo and behold at the Pizza stall was the same policeman who was working by night as a Pizza man.  That’s what we call multi skilling.  !! Khun Preecha, who I didn’t at all recognise but he indeed recognised us.  So we had to have him in our photos twice.