2 December 2017. Train to Naghon Ratchasima

I decided to break my journey to the Laos border around halfway and hit upon Naghon Ratchasima as the stop-off place. Waiting for it at Hua Lamphong station, I was impressed by the cleaning of the train on the next track.
 The journey was OK in a full train.


I was glad I'd booked a ticket as it was unclear I'd have been able to just turn up and go.

What strikes me about Thai Railways is the pride of the staff. They are all incredibly well attired and serious

Arriving at Naghon Ratchasima - or Korat as it's more familiarly known - station I took a quick picture of our train.


and set off to find my accommodation. A helpful member of station staff paired off with a tuk tuk driver who wanted immediately to take over my life - offering me a day tour tomorrow and a nice lady for tonight. So dull, I declined both. Instead, after settling in, I judged two nights in Korat would be enough and went to the station to book my onward ticket. The station is easily identified:

I then walked to the bus station, passing an interesting Wat along the way:


I wanted to find out about the main attraction of being in Korat - the temple complex at Phi Mai. Gaining this intelligence took a while but eventually I found the stand and bus number - eureka

By now it was evening and I went to an excellent restaurant by the hotel.


Afterwards, I went for a walk and came across the second most rated attraction in Korat - The statue of Thao Suranari (Ya Mo), the wife of the Assistant Governor of the region who rallied villagers in 1826 to repel Laotian invaders.  It was impressively lit with quite a lot of devotees.

The other monument that looked great under its lighting was nearby:




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