Sunburnt in Sukhothai
Trip Start
Mar 11, 2008
1
14
38
Trip End
Ongoing
Sukhothai,
Sukhothai,
Thailand
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
My day's adventure actually began last night when I boarded my first Thai overnight train bound for Phitsanulok. I had no real expectations of what the service would be like as I'm finding Thailand a real mix between the ultra-modern and efficient, and the outdated & basic. Long distance train travel as it turns out, falls into the latter category - it was a second class sleeper (fan only, no aircon) with slightly shabby, padded bench seats (sadly not of the reclining variety) designed to fit two small Thai bottoms. Luckily my neighbour to start the journey was a small Thai lady who was sleeping peacefully, allowing me some degree of space to stretch out and sleep
Sukhothai_1
. At Lopburi however I woke up to find my seat companion had changed and I now had the pleasure of sitting next to a slightly eccentric guy who fidgeted like hell, told me he couldn't sleep and proceeded to talk at me at length (despite it being 1 am and my having been asleep..) telling me he used to be an English teacher but now ran a barbers' shop and played saxophone (both of which held equal weight on the businesss card he proudly gave me!). He was absolutely delighted to meet his first genuine English tourist, even more so when he found out I lived in London, and wanted to know if I lived on the banks of the River Thames! I was eventually granted some peace & managed to grab a couple of hours sleep before my alarm went off to tell me we were due to arrive in Phitsanulok.From Phitsanulok it's a 1 hour bus hop across to Sukhothai, where I basically dumped my stuff at a guesthouse in the new town and leaped straight in a songthaew to Old Sukhothai and the Historical Site to make the most of my day here.
Sukhothai presided as capital of Thailand for 150 years (1238-1376) until Ayutthaya (then known as Siam) wrested power & is home to an impressive number of ruined Wats and Chedi covering a 70 square km site. The ruins at Sukhothai are very different from Ayutthaya's however. They're not as well preserved or as elaborate, but their surroundings are much more beautiful: while Ayutthaya is a thriving city with temples dotted amongst modern roads and buildings, the Sukhothai Historical Site has basically been turned into a landscaped park surrounded by woodland and open fields. There are a few roads that snake between the Wats, but precious little traffic so it's perfectly set up for cycle touring and there are loads of bike rental places outside the main gate offering Dutch style upright bikes for 20Bht a day.
I plan to move on tomorrow to Chiang Rai (a delightful 9 hour bus journey!) which means another early start... Better get some shut-eye therefore!
