In the morning we set off to buy tickets for the Elephant Round Up show. This is held only once a year and has been held every year without a break since 1960. We got there shortly after 8.00am to find that it was all sold out for the day. At this point we had met up with Aree and her son, Chris and Mary, who had come down from Mukdahan for the show. We decided to book for Sunday show and go down to Phanom Rung Historical Park to see the temples built from volcanic rock on the site of an old volcano.
The rock used for the main structure is like giant blocks of Aero chocolate. Even the roofs are made from solid stone.
A few kilometers down the road is another temple called Prasat Hin Mueang Tam. This one was different in so much that the original roof was supported on a timber structure rather than being solid stone.
You can see that the windows in the structure above have windows with turned stone pillars to provide a person proof barrier, but still providing ventilation. One of the windows had been filled. Maybe there was a window tax like in the UK?
In the evening we decided to stay in a cabin in the same little resort as the others. Normally the aircon rooms with en-suite are 400 baht, but as the show was on it was up to 650 baht. Still good value.
Elephant show tomorrow!
troopytracks 