Phimai is a great 2 day trip in my eyes.

4 hours on a bus from Bangkok.

Bus drops you off in the center of a small town.

Cheap guesthouse (350 bt) 2 minutes away.

Great, old temple 2 minutes away. Think of it as Angkor Wat minus the Angkor

Really nice museum 5 minutes away.

Lovely coffee shop and local market right there too.

Anyone have any other place to recommend?

Agree. I really liked Phimai also. Never stayed there, but it was great to visit. Did you visit where that banyan tree is in the middle of a lake? Nice place to have a bit to eat also.

Ahh forgot to mention the Banyan tree.

That is a nice 15 minute walk away I think. Though I would have much preferred a more natural setting for the tree, it truly is an amazing plant.

Phimai has been a haunt of ours for years - love the place - its our sanity between family visits across the country close enough to Korat for larger shopping experiences but without the junket tourists

JBL

Try Ayuthayya, Sukhothai, Si Sarachanalai.

I always wanted to see the big festival with traditional performances at night that is being held there during November. it must be MAGIC.

I saw such performance (much smaller scale of course) at Sikoraphum ruins near Surin during the Elephant-round-up a few years ago, and LOVED it.

I seriously had the plan to go to Phimai in Nov. 2010, but that was just a few weeks after heavy flooding in that area and I expected that a somehow depressed atmosphere still would prevail, as people certainly had other problems during that period.

But why not do it in 2012 ?

any joiners ?

I saw it couple of times,once during culture festival.If you really liked it you should venture to PhanumRung near Buriram/Surin.It is more impressive then Phimai.

Anywhere Else Like It?

Yes just south east of Phimai near Buriram

http://www.nangrongh...ng_buriram.html

and a few more places that my wife and I went to

http://www.pbase.com...n_east_thailand

Great place to visit if you have your own transport, but without that Kan not help you much.

Win

P.S. Good post btw

I saw it couple of times,once during culture festival.If you really liked it you should venture to PhanumRung near Buriram/Surin.It is more impressive then Phimai.

in which month is that usually held ?

I saw it couple of times,once during culture festival.If you really liked it you should venture to PhanumRung near Buriram/Surin.It is more impressive then Phimai.

in which month is that usually held ?

You have good luck - it happens quite soon - at the beginning of April is the most important one,

there are another occasions - begining of March,September and October

You will want to be on the site on sunrise in April(3-5) and on sunset in March(5-7) to observe the sun

shining through all 15 gates.In April they celebrate Phanum Rung Festival and religious ceremonies.

Phimai is great. Been there 9 years ago and loved it. Other similar places have already been mentioned: if you specifically like Khmer architecture -Phanom Rung in Buriram close to the Cambodian border, not so far from Phimai. However, the two must-see places, as far as ruins go, are Sukhothai and Ayutthaya; they are far more extensive than the Khmer places, so if you managed to spend two days at Phimai, you can probably spend several days at each of these.

Cheers, CMX

Edited February 26, 201214 yr by chiangmaiexpat

Phimai is great. Been there 9 years ago and loved it. Other similar places have already been mentioned: if you specifically like Khmer architecture -Phanom Rung in Buriram close to the Cambodian border, not so far from Phimai. However, the two must-see places, as far as ruins go, are Sukhothai and Ayutthaya; they are far more extensive than the Khmer places, so if you managed to spend two days at Phimai, you can probably spend several days at each of these.

Cheers, CMX

The Khmer sites of the Isaan are the best little known destinations of Thailand.

While Sukothai and Ayutthaya cover larger areas they lack the detail and interest of Phimai and Phanom Rung. Personally I love the fact that few tourists go there (may be out of date as it is 5 years since I last went there). Perhaps the lack of publicity is due to the fact that they are Khmer structures dating from a period when a large chunk of modern Thailand was in Khmer hands (and thus off the syllabus rather like the Burmese running CM and the Lanna Kingdom for 200 years).

If Preah Vihar is accessible that is also worth the trip as while the buildings were first trashed during their occupation by the Khmer Rouge, and then knocked around further during last year's pointless border skirmish (with real echoes of the "it became necessary to first destroy the village in order to save it" mentality seen in Vietnam), making them not that spectacular, the view from the edge of the escarpment looking south over Cambodia is fantastic.

There are endless other temple sites along the border, some still mined from KR days, others fought over last year, but all very undiscovered and unvisited if you like that type of thing.

Like Khmer style, go the disputed one at the border. Better still see the Ah and Wow, the real McCoy, the one and only, Ankor Wat.