Day 63-64: Sukothai
I'm still not quite caught up with my backlog of entries, but I think I'm close enough to justify spending some time writing about today, rather than last week. Which is good, because today was actually a pretty good day. I caught the bus from Bangkok to Sukothai yesterday morning. Joe drove me to the bus station and helped me get a ticket (read: got my ticket for me and put me on the right bus), and I spent the next seven hours riding north. The bus was only half-full, the A/C worked and the driver didn't seem to be insane, so really there was nothing to complain about. Nobody spoke English, but I correctly assumed that the rest stop would be at least 15 minutes, and that the bus wasn't going anywhere as long as the staff were still eating. The only downside was that I'd run out of books, so there was a lot of napping and looking out of the window. When I arrived, I was met by a couple of tourist wranglers who wanted to take me to their hotels, but they backed off right away when I said I was going to the place in my book. I picked the hotel partly because the book claimed it was walking distance from the bus station (I ended up taking a taxi because I had a headache and because the walking directions involved following an “indistinct path” past the spirit house and across a field before getting to the paved road), but mostly because they are known for baking good bread. As much as I do like Asian food, I really needed a break, and the sandwich I got at Au Bon Pain in Bangkok just did not cut it. And though you can get acceptable enough toast bread here, real bread seems hard to come by, so I came to the place with the bread. But then I ended up having sweet and sour vegetables for dinner, because at that point, I was more in need of vegetables than of bread. It was quite tasty, and chock full of vegetable goodness. I spent the evening working on my photos and journal, and enjoying a surprisingly decent glass of cognac.
This morning, then, I got up early so I could get out to the ruins before it got too hot. Sukothai was the capital of the first Thai kingdom, founded in the 13th century, and the historic park includes the remnants of several temples. In principle, it's kind of like Angkor, except that the ruins are (much) less impressive. It is, however, cheaper and easier to visit, and bits of it have been restored. It's also very well landscaped and makes for an interesting contrast with Angkor in terms of how these types of historic monuments can and should be managed. I think I like the (comparatively) haphazard nature of Angkor better, but the way Sukothai is set up is probably better when it comes to historic preservation. And it's probably the direction that Angkor is headed, so I'm glad I got the chance to go there when I did. For me, the best part about today was riding around on a rented bike. I got started at around 8:30, when it was still relatively cool, and there were no hills to speak of, so it was the equivalent of a pleasant stroll, only faster. It made me wish I had gotten a bike one day at Angkor, but the problem there was that you couldn't get the bikes inside the park, and so had to ride all the way from town first. Not the funnest in the heat and humidity. But here there were rentals right outside the gate and the distances were pretty short, so it was totally worth the $1 it cost me to rent the bike for the whole day. I hit the sites in the central area first, and then headed out to a couple more outside the northern gate. By then it was after noon and in the high 80s (but dry), so I decided it was time to call it a day. I returned the bike and spent nearly an hour in the expensive but air-conditioned museum before returning to my hotel for an excellent lunch. I got a cheese sandwich on a toasted baguette and a lemon/yogurt smoothie, both of which were fantastic. I'm having the sandwich again for breakfast tomorrow. I hung out in my room during the afternoon, trying not to sweat too much in the heat. Thailand is more expensive than Vietnam and Cambodia, and I'm starting to worry a little about money, so I went for a fan room rather than A/C. It's fine at night, given the lack of humidity, but when it's in the 90s outside during the day, there isn't much you can do but wait it out. At least I wasn't out in it all afternoon.
This morning, then, I got up early so I could get out to the ruins before it got too hot. Sukothai was the capital of the first Thai kingdom, founded in the 13th century, and the historic park includes the remnants of several temples. In principle, it's kind of like Angkor, except that the ruins are (much) less impressive. It is, however, cheaper and easier to visit, and bits of it have been restored. It's also very well landscaped and makes for an interesting contrast with Angkor in terms of how these types of historic monuments can and should be managed. I think I like the (comparatively) haphazard nature of Angkor better, but the way Sukothai is set up is probably better when it comes to historic preservation. And it's probably the direction that Angkor is headed, so I'm glad I got the chance to go there when I did. For me, the best part about today was riding around on a rented bike. I got started at around 8:30, when it was still relatively cool, and there were no hills to speak of, so it was the equivalent of a pleasant stroll, only faster. It made me wish I had gotten a bike one day at Angkor, but the problem there was that you couldn't get the bikes inside the park, and so had to ride all the way from town first. Not the funnest in the heat and humidity. But here there were rentals right outside the gate and the distances were pretty short, so it was totally worth the $1 it cost me to rent the bike for the whole day. I hit the sites in the central area first, and then headed out to a couple more outside the northern gate. By then it was after noon and in the high 80s (but dry), so I decided it was time to call it a day. I returned the bike and spent nearly an hour in the expensive but air-conditioned museum before returning to my hotel for an excellent lunch. I got a cheese sandwich on a toasted baguette and a lemon/yogurt smoothie, both of which were fantastic. I'm having the sandwich again for breakfast tomorrow. I hung out in my room during the afternoon, trying not to sweat too much in the heat. Thailand is more expensive than Vietnam and Cambodia, and I'm starting to worry a little about money, so I went for a fan room rather than A/C. It's fine at night, given the lack of humidity, but when it's in the 90s outside during the day, there isn't much you can do but wait it out. At least I wasn't out in it all afternoon.