Phrathat Reuang Rong (Temple near Sisaket)

A few weeks ago, Brad and I bought ourselves bicycles. We decided we did not want to get a scooter or motorcycle because traffic around here isn't anything you would want to drive in. The cars and motorcycles do whatever they want, and traffic lights are a mere suggestion. Crossing the street on foot is even a challenge, so we definitely did not want to drive in it. But walking takes too long, so for exploring purposes, we bought bicycles.

Our first adventure on our bicycles was to a temple called Phrathat Reuang Rong. We rode 6 miles out of town, and then in the middle of nowhere there was this beautiful temple. 

When we arrived, we took our time looking around. There was a museum component to the temple, in which there were ancient artifacts (and by that I mean lots and lots of pots) in display cases. There were words describing the artifacts, but I still cannot read a single word of Thai, so I simply looked and took pictures. But in case you are wondering, I am working hard at learning to speak Thai for day to day use. I can say hello, goodbye, thank you, and a few other polite words. I have also mastered ordering food on the street, but I'll save that for another blog post.

Anyways, here's a few pictures I took at the temple. 

As you can see, there is a grand set of stairs. Here I got photo bombed by one of the wild dogs.

In this picture you can see some monks, in the orange robes, walking around. I'm not exactly sure if I can take pictures of monks or not, so I snuck this picture. There are certain rules with monks like women are not allowed to touch them. For example, people give them money, and men hand it to them, but women have to put it in their pot so there is no hand to hand contact. 

There were also more statues of Buddha than I've ever seen in my life. Big ones and small ones. They were everywhere. It also was very common to come across families or individuals bowing and praying to Buddha.

Here is a statue of bulls pulling a wagon. I have no idea what it represents or why it was part of the temple. Sorry, not being able to read Thai makes things difficult. 

Finally, we climbed up five flights of stairs to the top of the temple. This is part of the view we saw. Also, if you're paying attention, you might recognize that those are actually the stairs from the first picture over there. 

I'll finish with the selfie we took at the top of the temple. There's a million more pictures, but I have to go teach my kindergarteners, so that's all for now.