The dawn of civilisation

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On Monday we took a very early bus from Chiang Mai, southwards to the town of "new" Sukhothai (the nearest town to the most ancient capital of Thailand).

After a six-hour trip we emerged from the bus, took a Sangthaew (pick-up trucks with wooden benches in the back that act as buses throughout Thailand) into town, found a nice questhouse ("Garden House") and rented a bungalow in the very green and well kept gardens.

After a 10 minute tour of town our suspicions that there is nothing to do in "new" Sukhothai were confirmed so we found shade, food and drink and settled down to peruse maps and guidebooks for the rest of the day.

The next morning we arose at dawn and caught the first Sangthaew (full of schoolchildren) to the old city (a bumpy 15km ride). There we rented bikes and were able to enter the national park (before the coachloads of German tourists arrive and hours before the 11am cut-off when central Thailand becomes too hot to breathe). It is incredibly eerie and quite magical to be alone in the ruins of a c13th civilisation in the early morning light.

The bikes were a godsend as the national park extends for several dusty kilometers in all four directions. After seeing the main temples within the old city walls we rode 4km out to see a hilltop Wat, reached by walking up an ancient stone bridge/wall.

On the roads we saw two of our favourite type of snake...dead ones.

After lunch (nothing beats a spicy yellow curry in the 39 degree midday heat) we sought refuge in the museum which houses many of the archeological finds made since they began to establish the park and reclaim the ruins from the jungle in 1907. This museum also celebrates the birth of the Thai written language which was created in Sukhothai over 700 years ago).

In the mid-afternoon we rode out from the city walls in a different direction (mainly to experience the thrill of moving air again) but after a couple of temples, a few more dusty kilometers and Emma nearly stepping on a large black (and angry-looking) scorpion, the rising-at-dawn and unrelenting heat of the sun were getting to us so we decided to call it a day and headed back to the cool of our guesthouse garden.

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