2) Ubon Ratchathani - enjoying temples and the Loy Krathong festival

A 6h train ride (57 baht) brought us from Korat to Ubon Ratchathani. Due to the Loy Krathong festival most hotels were fully booked. But the 3rd hotel of choice luckily still had rooms available, tokyo hotel.
The next day we rented a motorbike and explored the city. After some troubles of orientation, the fire department provided us a tourist map of the city :D So we started at the old temple Wat Tung Sri Muang, where friendly peopled offered us free drinks and food because of the festival. Next temple on the route was Wat Suphatanaram, a nice place to feed fish and watch the Mun river.
A bit further out of town the most stunning temples were waiting for us. Wat Nong Bua is a sparkling white and gold temple. With totally blue sky and strong sun the temple was nearly to bright to look at. Unluckily the pictures hardly can tell how stunning the temple looked to us^^
That was followed by the great Wat Ban Na Mung, which actually were 2 temples. Both having the structure of a boat shipping the temple. The smaller one even had rowers and guards :D The bigger one was actually sitting on a lake. I saw quite many temples already, but Wat Nong Bua and Wat Ban Na Mung are clearly outstanding. A drive along the Huai Wang Nong reservoir, where we later would celebrate the Loy Kraton festival, before we visited the cities Trung Sri Muang park.
At the evening we went to the Loy Krathong festival. First we visited the Ubon Ratchathani Rajabhat University and later went to the more stunning Huai Wang Nong reservoir. Some great fireworks, many floating Kratongs and flying Poms made up the scenery. The festival provided too many great snacks :P Later we sent our own Kratong floating and Pom flying :)

Wat Tung Sri Muang

Wat Suphatanaram

Stunning Wat Nong Bua

suay mak mak :)

Wat Ban Na Mung

Ship housing the temple with rowers and guards^^

the second part of Wat Ban Na Mung

Candle sculpture in Tung Sri Muang park

Big Krathongs, only for watching, all made from Banana

our little floating Krathong (right)

Sending a Pom flying :)

1) Phimai - a friendly village with lovely sights

On friday (19.11.) we took the bus to Korat (198 baht, 4h) and connected there to Phimai by bus (36 baht, 2h).  After arriving in the lovely village, we checked into Boonsiri Guesthouse who provided us with a map to explore the sights next day. A good streetfood dinner with some talks to the locals before going for a sleep.
The next morning (20.11.) we started walking around the village. First explored the Phimai Historical Park that hosts an old Khmer temple, which supposedly was an early concept version of Angkor. But of course it can not compete with Angkor, still the old ruins are a lovely sight. Then we walked to Sai Ngam, an old Banyan tree. Supposedly more than 350 years old it was an astonishing sight. The tree is huge and I'm still not sure it if were many trees or just one^^
On the afternoon we went back to Korat and by train on to Ubon Ratchathani (57 baht, 6h).

Prasat Hin Phimai

Nice park surrounding the temple :)

I like the carvings^^

Sai Ngam

Stunning nature

Train from Korat to Ubon Ratchathani