C-hampden's travel blogs:
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I'm becoming a Culture Vulture
Entry 35 of 67 | show all | print this entry |
After Ayuthaya we got a train to Phitsanulok, but this time we travelled 2nd class. It was much more like a western carriage and we got free food and drink, but in all honesty I preferred it in 3rd class. There's no air-con there but there are slide down windows, no free food but locals selling stuff from baskets, no reclining seats to sleep in but hard seats that keep you up and speaking to random people. I think travelling as cheap as possible is definitely the way forward.
After we got to Phitsanulok we were supposed to be picked up and taken straight to out guesthouse in Old Town Sukothai, but there was no sign of anyone (again). So we jumped on a tuk-tuk to the coach station and jumped on some sweaty bus to take us to Sukothai (an hour trip). Just as we were about to leave a flusted Thai bloke jumped on and shouted "Mr Hampden, Mr Hampden", and told me and Ross to get off the bus. He had missed our train and was in a real panic he was going to get in big trouble. We jumped in his jeep and he drove (if that is the word) us to our guesthouse. It was certainly an interesting journey, with a couple of near misses and cars driving on the wrong side of the road. At some points there was no road as it has all been dug up. I was glad I wasn't on that sweaty bus!
The driver, Mike, asked us if we liked football. The answer is obvious. He then took us down to the local football pitch, where there were 20 or so Thais ranging from 13 to about 30. They wanted us to play, so I pulled on my Palace shirt and set about resurrecting my playing career. I put ion a few big tackles and a few last-gasp blocks, which impressed a few of them. At the other end Ross netted two wonder goals. Thailand was getting a schooling from England basically.. that was until we had played about 45 minutes in 30 degree heat. We decided to leave on a high and go get some food. After a quick goodbye we left them to it, clearly lowering the standard at the same time.
After the footie Mike felt bad about being late. He said he'd take us to the New Tiown for some food and drink. We ended up watching the Liverpool vs Chelsea game in an alley on a big screen projector with about 100 Thais. It was quality. Our attendance seemed to ammuse some of the locals too. We then went back to the Old Town and had some food at the Coffee Cup, a small outdoor place which ended up being our food supplier for our whole stay in Sukothai.
The next day saw us hire bikes and see the ruins, as we did in Ayuthaya. They are the oldest ruins in Thailand, and are less damaged than the Ayuthaya ruins. Again, they were pretty impressive. It didn't take us long to get round everywhere so we cycled round the back streets of town, seeing the houses of the locals. I doubt anyone else really does it, and when we said hello inThai it bought a smile to the locals face.
We ended up hacving a quiet night because there wasn't much to do in the old town, plus we decided to leave a day earlier than planned as we had seen everything. Our evening was slkightly soured by these Israeli people who had moaned about the guesthouse and how they had been ripped off by TAT (the tourism people). Basically we got ripped off massively too. We know that but we aren't going to spend our trip moaning about it non-stop. You just have to learn your lesson and get on with it.
So anyway, we changed our coach to Chiang Mai to the 22nd, giving us a chance to spend more time in one of the most popular places in Thailand due to the variety of things to do (and the fact we can have a night on the town there!). Unfortunately it meant a 6 hour coach drive...
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