Off Temple hunting!!! Story within!!

Off Temple hunting!!! Story within!!

Hello all, as I mentioned with my last photograph, that I was going temple hunting on Sunday.
I had arranged with my taxi driving friend A, to collect us at 9am.
One bad factor about this fellow, he is horribly punctual, my phone rang on Sunday morning at 7.15.
Sawadee khup was what I heard on the other end, I am outside the hotel, waiting.
That ruined my plans for a bit of the old body maintenance, breakfast and a couple of cups of steaming coffee, which are my kick start to the day.
Landed up rushing through the shower, collecting my camera and tripod and off downstairs where he was waiting.
It was a bright sunny day and the temperature was pleasant, off we went on our merry journey.
Everyone seemed happy and A loaded some Isaan music into the DVD.
Our destination was the impressive Prasat Phnom Rung pronounced (Lung) it is situated
Near the Cambodian border on the top of an extinct volcano, known as Phnom Rung Hill.
Little did we realise that the temperature outside of the air-condition vehicle was climbing.
The roads were pretty busy and it took almost 3 hour to travel the 150 kilometres.
As we stepped from the car, we were met by some sweltering heat.
You can tell when it is uncomfortably hot in Thailand, for the males roll up the bottoms of their shirts to expose half their abdomen.
Up the pathway we strutted till we met the steps, not exactly what one needed on such a hot day, however we started our climb, stopping occasionally so the ladies could catch up.
There are some 5 sets of steps to the sanctuary high above and it was worth every bead of sweat to suddenly view this amazing structure.
My first thought was for the poor elephants that had to lug all these heavy boulders up this hill, unlike the temples in Cambodia built on flat ground.
Have to rush off to town, so will continue with the future photos.
This magnificent chamber (mandapa) is part of the temple built as a Hindu religious sanctuary in the 12 centaury.
More later, my camera is unable to be set and I am unable to view the photos on camera, so all are shot @ Exposure 1/320s F-number/4.5 ISO 100, Quality Cloudy.

Walkabout John.