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Published: July 13th 2008
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Ramkhamhaeng Monument
He developed Thai script. Sukhothai
Aha, I have it (I finally wrest the keyboard from Lisa's grasp to write a blog entry!). We left Kanchanaburi very early on Saturday and undertook the 2 hour journey to Bangkok's Southern Bus Terminal, Sai Tai Mai. Following a taxi ride to the Northern Terminal, Morchit we preceded on bus to the first Thai (Siam) capital, Sukhothai which took 6 hours.
Arriving late in the day, we were looking forward to a revitalising hot shower in 'New Sukhothai'. Following a brief tuk tuk ride to J&J Guesthouse we were disappointed to find it full despite having reserved a room there (we even confirmed our reservation 3 days previously!). As Lisa and I were heading back to the other guesthouses, guess who popped out? Yes, Sian! Her tour group had arrived at our intended guesthouse earlier that day and had filled it. Sian had stolen our room!
We checked into another guesthouse and orientated ourselves with the town. In 'New Sukhothai' there is not much to see apart from a small market. We went to bed early in anticipation of an early start.
We caught a rickety old bus to the Sukhothai Historical Park (about 14km
away from our guesthouse). After hiring bikes and buying an 'Access All Areas' ticket, we rode in. Sukhothai was established in the 12th-13th century and was the first capital of Siam. Sukhothai's dynasty lasted 200 years and had 9 kings. The most famous was King Ramkhamhdeng who reigned from 1275 to 1317 and is credited with developing the first Thai literature, but hey this is not a history lesson!
Lisa and I spent the day cycling between various temples (within a 5km radius). It was a very warm day, but seeing the wats was very rewarding (especially the ones that were less decayed by the effects of time). One of our favourites was Wat Si Chum which housed a big Buddha image 'framed' by a large doorway in the foreground.
The following day we went on an epic walk (ok we got lost) to the public swimming pool, Premsuk. It was a 30m pool which we shared with 3 other people and it cost the equivalent of 50p each - a refreshing way to while away a hot afternoon.
Off to see the elephants...
We left Sukhothai on Tuesday morning and headed north for 4
hours by bus to a town called Lampang. After checking into a hotel we had lunch then went to explore which was a little disappointing as there was not much to see apart from a few wats, department stores and newsagents.
Lampang is known as Mueng Rot Mah (Horse Cart City) because it is the only town in Thailand to still use horse carts as public transport. Although we didn't see any of the locals using them, it seemed to be the only interesting thing to do so we hired one for half an hour to take us on a 'grand tour', hoping to see interesting things that we had missed on our walk. The horse cart proved fruitful because it took us down one street full of nice looking restaurants which we tried out later.
On Wednesday we went to the Elephant Conservation Centre, about 20km north of Lampang (our main reason for staying there) via bus. We got there nice and early and got a good seat to watch the elephants bathing. About 15 elephants bathed in one of the lakes in the grounds of the centre. During bathing they were accompanied by mahouts or elephant
trainers and it was very amusing watching the mahouts climb higher and higher to a dry spot upon the elephants as they submerged themselves in water. We saw some western mahouts and found out that you could do a short course to become one. It did look fun splashing around with the elephants and ducking when a trunk full of water was pointed in your direction!
After the bathing we watched the elephants perform in a show. Each had a talent dependent on age and strength and ranged from bowing and picking up logs with their trunk to playing an instrument and even painting! We were also shown the way elephants can be used in the forest to help carry timber and we saw different methods used.
Following the show we bought a 1 hour ride on a male elephant called Tupan. Our ride through the surrounding forest was more of a saunter as Tupan stopped every 5 minutes to eat. Our mahout could not speak much English and would occasionally turn around and grin at us with these big white teeth as we waited for Tupan to finish eating. All in all it was a great day
and we bought a photo of ourselves on Tupan in a frame made of elephant dung - something to treasure:-).
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