a return to angkor times

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So I decided to make a couple stops in eastern Thailand in South Isaan before heading south to the islands, and I'm so glad I did. I really have loved this area. There are very few tourists and the people are incredibly friendly as usual.
During the bus ride from the islands to Pakse (near the border to Thailand) I met three Canadians. Two of which were heading to Vietnam and the other (Deep) to Thailand. Deep and I headed over the border and got a lift to Nang Rong. This is a pretty unexciting town in itself, but just out of town there are a couple of angkor era temples. I was pretty hesitant because I hadn't been impressed by any sort of temple since Angkor in Siem Reap, but I thought I'd give it a chance. Aaaand, they were pretty good. Still quite similar to Angkor, so I wasn't overly impressed. But it was a really nice day. Aside from getting ticketed by the police on the way out. They can pretty much fine you for anything and they smile as they do it. Deep seems to have a magic touch with the thais and managed to get them down from 200bht to 50 bht. We drove on to the ruins which are situated quite scenically on a little mountain. On the way back we stopped at a viewpoint and found a group of young thai boys playing the guitar and drinking Sang Som Whisky. They were getting a little drunk and singing thai songs so it was pretty funny. Then, maybe because we are english speaking, they started playing Zombie by the Cranberries. And they got SO into it, screaming "IN YO HEEEED, IN YO HEEEED, Zooombaaaay, Zoooombaaaay!" and not quite able to sing any of the other lyrics. Hilarious. I only wished I could have had it on video. So for me that was the highlight of the day!
Next I said goodbye to Deep who was heading to one of my favorite places, Ko Chang! And me, I headed north to a small town called Phi Mai, which is a beautiful place. In the centre of the town there is an enclosed ruins, which is really neat. It's funny because there is a 7-11 across the street. I ended up spending 3 nights instead of my intended 1 there. The first day I too a bike and headed to an area by a lagoon where there was a giant banyan tree. I entered the forest and explored looking for the giant banyan tree... turns out the giant banyan tree IS the forest. One tree, but hundreds of trunks. It's 350 years old and covers over 35,000 square feet. Very cool.
The next day I took in the ruins which were amazing. I think I just loved that they were in the middle of the town. Next I went and got a 2 hour thai massage. It was HEAVEN! I haven't really been indulging in the cheap massages, so this was a really nice treat. That evening I met a women who was a teacher at a thai dance school and her students were performing for their families that evening at the Phi Mai ruins. Normally it's 500 bht (=18$), but she must have took pity on me (I'm pretty sure it's due to my increasingly grubby appearance!) because she took me as her guest. It was an amazing show. Such a nice last evening in the lovely Phi Mai.

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