hanom Rung National Park, Thailand

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Phanom Rung National Park, Thailand

When one thinks of ancient Cambodian temples of course Angkor Wat is the first that comes to mind. As amazingly beautiful and grand Angkor Wat is, Phanom Rung and the surrounding temples in Thailand are mostly unknown to tourists. If you want to avoid crowds and enjoy the amazing temples I can recommend visiting. A relatively unknown ancient Khmer Hindu temple complex dedicated to Shiva replicating Mount Kailash located atop an extinct volcano seems exotic enough to me. Truthfully, I was really amazed especially when the monks showed up in the video attached.

Location

The best known of the Khmer temples in Thailand is Phanom Rung. Near the end of a cycle tour in Thailand that had taken me from Phuket to Isaan, (I covered part of the tour in these posts Phuket to Hua Hin and Hua Hin to Bangkok), I was cycling without a real plan. Finding myself in Isaan and surrounded by rice fields, I came across Phanom Rung and then the other Khmer temple sites such as Phimai and Prasat Sikhoraphum which I visited as well.

Cost

I've heard Angkok Wat is around 30 dollars US per day currently. I visited for 3 days in 2000. These temples in Thailand are free or at most 100 baht/3.5 dollars per day and with only a few Thai tourists at most, very well maintained and peaceful.

Walking Buddhist Monks

So let's talk about the video. I had just climbed the many steps build for giants up to the top of the extinct volcano temple. Relaxing in the shade I noticed a procession of monks coming up the hill from the other side through the forest. In the dry season Thai Buddhist monks travel around the country staying in other wats. In the rainy season monks are supposed to choose a temple to stay until the dry season comes again. Normally, they walk barefoot, sometimes carrying an umbrella and live simply begging for alms in the morning. I've never seen such a procession because normally they walk through the jungle.

Thanks for reading and watching the video. I hope you enjoyed my post. Inspired to do some travels yourself? The time is coming soon! This one happened a couple of years ago. Stay tuned for more posts!