We got up this morning not knowing how to get to the temples we wanted to visit. As we could not rent a motorbike, there were only manuals available and we had never driven those before, we had to find another way to get to the temples. Other options included renting a car with driver or using the local buses. As per our guide book it looked like it would have been a bit complicated to reach the temples with the local buses and for the two of us it was too expensive to rent a car...but we have been very lucky! We've met at breakfast an American couple in their early 20's that also wanted to visit the temples. We quickly agreed to rent a car with driver and share the cost. The car with a driver cost us Bh700 for 5 hours, going to the two temples and coming back to the guesthouse, no extra kilometers allowed! We had to bargain hard to get a deal, as the normal price is Bh800 for 8 hours and apparently it cannot be discussed. At the end we managed to leave the guesthouse in a nice air-con jeep at about 10am. Our driver turned out to be a funny Thai man, who practiced his English with us and who tried to teach us a bit of Thai! After 30min drive we stopped at a lookout and not longer after we arrived at Phanum Rung (entrance fee Bh40). All the walkway to the temple had been decorated with colourful fabrics and flowers, there were also statues of animals on each side of the stairs. All of this was for a celebration that had happened the day before. In April each year locals celebrate the day when the sun goes through the 15 gates of the temple. We have been nicely surprised by this temple. It has been well renovated and is much bigger than the one we visited in Phimai. Afterwards our driver took us to Muang Tham. Another very nice temple surrounded by 4 L shaped pounds. The temple was also well decorated for a ceremony that was going to happen later in the day. After the visit we watched a show in front of the temple. Young boys were playing various local instruments while 4 others were acting and dancing. It was very interesting and quite surprising. Before returning to the guesthouse we had lunch in a local restaurant...where we had some problems to order our food as nobody spoke a word of English! Back in Nang Rong we quickly picked up our bags and jumped in the first bus to Surin (Bh85, over an hour trip). Surin is a medium sized town where you really experience Thailand, far away from the tourists beaten track. We got a very cheap but comfortable room in a Hospital looking like hotel and after dinner ended up watching Arsenal playing Liverpool in a very friendly pub.
