Day of Travelling...

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Sukhothai beckons
First capital of Thailand
Awesome Wats to see.

Well, today was the first real day of my one week tour to Northern Thailand. Basically was spent in transport from Bangkok to Sukhothai. We didn't get to our guesthouse until about 4PM in the afternoon.

They gave us a whole talk about females "interacting" with monks. Basically, we are not to touch them otherwise they are to go through a "cleansing" process and we are not to talk to them unless they initiate a conversation or perhaps talk "thru" another person. Anyway, with all that being said, the group of us (there are twelve of us plus the tour group leader) board the train and find our seat. Hmm, bit of a problem. There's a monk and his companion sitting in my and Becky's seat! Eventually Deb our tour group leader talks to them and they say that "they don't have an assigned seat number"...although me and Becky do! So Becky and I sit in two other unoccupied seats. Then comes time for the train guy to check everybody's tickets...he notices that we are not in the proper seats and that a monk is sitting in our seats. He let's it go and sort of motions to us where our true seats are. Then the next stop the seat holders for the two "free" seats we have been sitting in board the train. Hmm...now what. Well, the train guy now has to get the monk to move so that Becky and I can sit in our correct seats. The rest of the group was bugging me that I "bumped" the monk out of his seat. Of course I then made comment wondering if I should be worrying about my karma! haha

Anyway, the train ride was pretty uneventful. Long...boring...hot. We did get a small hot lunch of rice and yummy fish with a spicy sauce. In my sleepy haze, I almost bit down and ate the chili pepper that was added to the fish whole! At first I thought, hmm, they are pretty stingy with the green beans and just before I bit down it dawned on me that I was in Thailand and that was no green bean! I can only imagine how hot that chili pepper would have been since the sauce was pretty spicy! lol Remember I was wondering whether I should be worrying about my karma? Well, come snack time the snack cart almost toppled onto me...hot tea and all. But "lucky" for me only a few splatters of tea landed on my arm and it really wasn't that hot...

After our long train ride we boarded a songtheaw, which basically has two rows of benches on the back of a pick-up truck with a roof overhead. It wasn't the most comfortable ride but at least we got a cool breeze going! It was interesting looking out and seeing the green fields mixed in with burning fields (apparently to get rid of wild grasses and to also keep the snakes at bay.) The most interesting part though was waving to others that we encountered from the back of the songtheaw…I'm not sure if they were more interested in watching us or us them. lol

We eventually arrived at the No. 4 Guesthouse. Quite a nice little place. The bungalows that we stayed in sort of reminded me of the bungalows that you'd see on Gilligan's island. Mind you we had beds (not hammocks) to sleep in. lol Needless to say they were not the fanciest of places to sleep but quite nice. Every bungalow had a nice sitting area up front with a lounge chair and the food they made was just delish...and super cheap too! I love me the curry!

We had a pretty early night in preparation for 7:30 breakfast...

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