Days 27-28 Phitsanulok to the ruins of Sukhothai and back (150km)
[ Tommy typing ]
While I thouroughly enjoyed the hustle of Bangkok, after five days in the chaos I was definitely ready to head North for some fresh mountain air.
I set off from my guesthouse in Phitsanulok for the ancient ruins of Sukhothai, the one time-capital of the Siam Kingdom from the mid-1200s until 1438 when the city was consumed by the Ayuttthaya empire, the same force which eventually took the Khmer grand capital of Ankgor in present-day Cambodia. Sukhothai is one of best preserved archaeological sites in Southeast Asia, because it was not looted as extensively as Ankgor and Ayutthaya after it’s demise. For being one of the primier hitorical sites of Thailand I was surprised to find the historical park almost empty of visitors with only a couple of farang tourists wandering about. I guess most of the foreign touristas are more interested to waste their time in the go-go bars of Paptong District than to visit ancient ruins of a historical capital, but I was happy to have the place mostly to myself.
The ruined city was once surrounded by a wall and moat which covered quite an expansive area, and there were lots of bicycles for tourist to rent and explore the ruins. I showed up on my own ride however and spent the afternoon cruising around and snapping plenty of photos. Before reaching the ruins, I had rented a room in the town of New Sukhothai about 12 Km from the historical site and left my heavy bags at the guesthouse. What a joy it is to sprint on the road bike without my 50 lb burden of luggage. In leaving my bags at the guesthouse, I also forgot my sunscreen and returned back to my room a little pink.
The next morning I set out for the highway back to Phitsanulok to catch the overnight train to Chiang Mai (i wish I could download some kind of an interactive map feature for the blog). Some of you may know that my friend Aoy just recieved her PhD from Chiang Mai University and is now a lecturer at the university here in Phitsanulok. She came to the train station to take me out to dinner with four other lecturers in her department. We went out for Thai style hot pot, similar to the Northern Chinese/Mongolian version or Japanese shabu-shabu, but with a distinctly Thai flavor of basil, lime and chili. After filling up on hot pot and plenty of beer Singha, they took me for a walk around the busy open-air night market for some Thai ice cream, made from coconut cream, and back to the station just in time for the train.
