The Newer City

19.02.09 - Arrived at Sukhothai in the evening. Despite denials to the contrary from taxi and tuktuk drivers, it was possible to take a bus out to Old Sukhothai, where all the temples are based. We had a reservation at a guesthouse. When we arrived, tired and fed up, they told us they were full. We explained we had a reservation. After a long conversation with someone on the phone in Thai and much hand wringing, we were allowed to go to a clearly empty room. I don't know why the guy on the desk said they were full when they weren't - perhaps he didn't like the look of us.

We had a quick dinner and then retired early to bed, as we had insanely ambitious plans for the following day.

Woke up at five. Why, why, why? We then walked to the temple entrance. We got stuck halfways in the dark as about 7 very aggressive sounding dogs were going crazy at us, and I have both a fear of dogs and rabies and was unwilling to take my chances. Finally a lovely motorcyclist came past and asked the problem. Much amused by said problem, he turned around and drove his motorbike slowly past the dogs, forming a sort of human shield between us. The guard on the gate found this very amusing too and I felt like a proper idiot tourist.

Once at the gate, despite trying to pay money and the gate saying the temple opened at 6.00, we weren't allowed in. I wanted a sunrise shot of Sukhothai - which after all was the whole point of the early start - and got increasingly fed up by not being able to find a ticket and go in. The gate guy couldn't explain why we couldn't go in, as he didn't speak English. We tried charades but that did no good for anybody. We tried locating the tickets ourselves and giving him money but he was having none of it. At 6.30, the sun clearly rising, we just walked in. He didn't stop us.

I have no idea what the deal is with entrance to Sukhothai. No other tourist came in until 8am and all other signs I saw said that it wasn't open until 8, so I don't know if we were supposed to go in so early or not. But in any event, we had the whole complex to ourselves for over an hour, which was AMAZING.

We took hundreds of shots of Wat Mahathat, the premier temple and former crown jewel of the kingdom, at sunrise. There were many lakes within the complex so that everything was beautifully reflected in the water. There were an overwhelming number of Buddhas in all conceivable positions - sitting, standing, big, small, chedis, viharas. And we saw it all just the two of us, our only other companion a one eyed dog who followed us around.

Once we'd seen everything there, we walked to Trapang Ngoen, also reflected in its own 'silver pond', and Wat Sra Sri.

We were just leaving the complex at 8 as the tourists were swarming in on foot, bike and tour party. Thank God! We had a well needed breakfast before venturing back out. Unfortunately it was the kind of day that isn't suitable for English skin, so we took in the museum before making the long walk out to the northern temples. It really was a long walk, not assisted by our getting lost multiple times on the way.

We saw Wat Sri Chum, featuring a giant 15m Buddha peering from a slit in the mondop, and Wat Phra Phai Luang, a temple converted from Hinduism to Buddhism. Both okay but nothing compared to wat Matathat. We saw one final temple surrounded by a frieze of elephants before getting lunch and chilling out for the rest of the day.

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