Sukhothai Part 5

From Wat Si Chum, I biked along some quiet country backroads past a few lesser known ruins.  This one in the pictures was especially crumbling, and the grass around it is kept short by grazing cows. 

Exhausted by a long day of exploring, I made it back to the bicycle rental place, which involved biking along the road with traffic, and they drive on the other side of the road in Thailand; it wasn't bad at all, though.

Sukhothai Part 4

Just across the road from the ticket booth and entrance to the historical area, there are a couple of bike rental places.  For thirty baht (just under a dollar) you can rent a bike all day.  This is what all the guides I've read said to do, and they were right. 

The ruins at Sukhothai are of a whole city, so they are scattered out over a fairly large area.  It saved a lot of time to bicycle between the major clumps of ruins. Also, on such a hot day, bicycling means a bit of wind in your face, so it was nice to cool off a bit.  There were areas to park the bikes near the major temples, and the rental place provided a bike lock. They also let me borrow a small bungee cord to fasten the bag I was carrying my shoes in to the back seat, since the bikes didn't have baskets.

After I explored the main section of the old city, I biked out a couple of kilometers to the northern section of the ruins.  I explored several areas up there; the most important being Wat Si Chum, with its tall Buddha peeking out of a narrow door.  The buddha's hands are painted gold; you can see the pictures below. 

Sukhothai Part 3

There are so many pictures I like from this day that I don't know which to put.  I know looking at someone else's vacation photos can get tedious, so I'll try to restrain myself.

One fun part of the day was meeting quite a few local 12-year-olds. A nearby school was on a field trip to the ruins. But not for history class-for English class. The students had an assignment to interview a certain number of foreigners, and where better to find them than at a famous historical site?

They practiced basic questions-what is your name? How do you spell that? Where are you from? What do you do? Do you like Thai food? They didn't know much else, but they were enthusiastic in accosting any foreigner who came by.  I did have longer conversations with a couple of the teachers. 

It must be a bit of a challenge for the kids, though, to hear so many different accents of English.  There was my American English, and I saw a British family, but it seemed that most of the tourists were French or Italian.  So the kids were getting English from those not too sure of it themselves. 

On a side note, I did really enjoy hearing people speaking in Italian.  I couldn't think of an excuse to talk to many of them, but just hearing was nice.  I miss speaking the language; I certainly haven't found anyone to talk to in Wuhan. It did remind me, though, how much my accent has suffered on the four years (!) that I haven't used it. 

Sukhothai Part 2

As you can see from the pictures, the weather was absolutely perfect the day I went out to poke around the ruins of the old capital.  Blue skies and bright sunshine, crystal clear with no haze, and enough fluffy clouds to keep it interesting.

What you can't see, but can probably guess, in the pictures is that it was, as we say in the south, hotter 'n blue blazes. I don't remember what the weather channel said the actual high was supposed to be, but the heat index was 105. I went through several bottles of water, and successfully sunburned an outline of my purse strap across my front. 

Sukhothai Part 1

http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/574

The ruins at Sukhothai are now a Unesco world heritage site.  If you want to read more about it, see the above link. 

Sukhothai is considered to be the first capital of Thailand.  The kings who reigned from the city controlled most of modern Thailand from 1238 until the last half of the 1400s, when the monarchy moved to a new capital further south at Ayutthaya. 

Now the old city is just a scattered collection of ruins, with crumbling brick columns and the remains if temples and large stone Buddhas.  There are remnants of city walls, as well.  The houses and markets were all built of wood, so it's only the important public buildings that remain. 

There is now a new town, New Sukhothai, about 12 kilometers from the ruins, which is where I stayed. 

Thai Food

Trying another dish I've been seeing on menus...chicken in garlic sauce.  Yum.  One of the best things I've had yet.

Lunch from 7-11

My lunch-two croissants with ham and cheese.  7-11 sells plenty of sandwiches and microwaveable dinners, and they even microwave them for you. These are pretty good. 

Off again...

And I'm off again...still heading north.  About six and a half hours this time, from Bangkok up to Sukhothai to see the ruins if the old capital. 

I'm still rather amazed at how easy it is to get around here.  At bus terminals, the ticket windows are clearly labeled with the destinations, in both Thai and English.  The staff always speak a few words, at least, in English.  There are frequent buses to just about everywhere.  After being in Thailand, I understand why westerners are often advised to go to Thailand their first time to Asia; it is less of a culture shock thanks to the well-established tourist infrastructure and especially because of the friendly, no-hassling people. 

7-11

It's unbelievable how many 7-11s there are in this country. Seriously, it seems you're never more than a five minutes' walk from one in town.  This one was across the street from my hostel in Bangkok; there was another just across the intersection (I guess it's too much trouble to cross the road?).  One night I walked about half an hour down the road to the night market, and I passed three more.  There were a couple in the other direction, going towards the river, too.  But, they all seem to stay busy. 

Friendliness

I've been impressed with the taxi drivers and Tuk Tuk drivers here.  Well, they aren't all perfect.  There  are some who don't want to use the meter, so they can charge a bit extra. And there was that one who talked to himself and made weird noises. 

But when you walk by a tuk tuk, they ask if you need a ride.  When you say no thank you, they accept no for an answer and don't hassle. And a couple of times, I've told a driver no, and then he added where I was going anyways.  I was expecting then to hear a spiel about how. it was a long way, and I really should hire him.  But no-he just wanted yo help. He ggave me good directions, in English, on how to walk there.  Wow, usually drivers lose all interest in you once they realize they aren't getting a fare out of you.

Taxi drivers in China haven't been like that, although to be fair they might be if my Chinese was better.  Very few there speak any English at all, but many here do.  

Mile Map Hostel

So far on this trip, I have stayed in private rooms, because they seemed to be easier to find. However, I know I'd be staying in dorms at least part of the time to save money. 

I stayed in the dorm in the Mile Map Hostel in Bangkok. I knew I'd be there several nights, and the dorm was only about nine dollars a night. 

It's fun to stay in the dorm sometimes, especially when you've been traveling alone a while. People in dorms often introduce themselves and chat. 

I don't mind staying in the dorm;  it's just like camp growing up.  For those of you who haven't stayed in a hostel dorm, here's a couple of pictures from the Mile Map Hostel.