'We resisted her'

Oh, oh, how proud we are of ourselves. We resisted her. I mean the meddlesome/overly helpful lady from the Rainbow Hill Hotel. I wrote about her a few days ago: www.thailandblog.nl/reishistories/op-tijd-ta-ko/

This morning at breakfast she was not there and we were helped by a most friendly, somewhat timid other lady; one that fully met the standard picture of a Thai who provides breakfast in a hotel. All farang always want scrambled eggs with bacon for breakfast, every Thai knows that, so our intention not to have a heavy breakfast immediately fell apart.

Before eight we left for Phanom Rung, where it was still wonderfully quiet. The temple is located on a high hill, which lies in an otherwise completely flat area. It looks a bit surreal when you drive for miles through the flat country and then suddenly have to make a very steep climb. The explanation of this strange phenomenon is nothing magical: the hill is an extinct volcano.

Phanom Rung is again a bit more spectacular than Phimai and, according to Mieke, can certainly compete with Ankhor. More details have been preserved in the ruins of the Cambodian big brother. And Ankhor is of course the major tourist attraction when it comes to Khmer heritage.

That does not mean that you will not find other visitors in Phanom Rung. We were there so early that we could enter for free and took plenty of time to see everything. When we walked from the main tower back to the exit, the first school groups just started to arrive. During the descent of the volcano we encountered about six double-decker buses and when we passed the complex again on the way back, the parking lot was full of buses and it must have been quite busy.

Trivia: I found a rock in Phanom Rung with compelling evidence that Fokke and Sukke are borrowed from Khmer culture (or I'm having too much imagination).

We were back in our hotel before noon and decided to catch up on some missed sleep first. Nothing wrong with the bed here, but for some reason I couldn't sleep last night. The choice between “sin” and “pity” was this time in favor of “sin”, so when after fifteen minutes there was a knock on the door and “she” was shouting “madaaaam” loudly, we had a problem. Say nothing and hope she wouldn't open the door with her key and step inside? Or was that a step too far for her helpfulness. Mieke proved to be the bravest of the two of us: “Later….we are sleeping” she cried. That was enough. Oh, oh, how proud we are of ourselves. We resisted her.