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Published: June 16th 2011
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Wat Si Chum
For scale look for the person at the bottom of the photo The culture tour continued further north to the ancient ruins of Sukhothai. These are heralded as the best in Thailand. Different from Ayuthaya because they wear no battle scars from humans but from nature. The now converted historical park had been recovered from the overgrowing jungle. No traffic was allowed inside and was perfect for a peaceful bicycle ride.
The park is well manicured with shaded pathways. As long as I stayed here I wouldn't die of the heat. My first stop was the largest temple, Wat Mahathat. This set of ruins covered a huge area with many variations on Buddha images and architecture. A pleasant place to stroll around until I realised I was taking all my photos in "Sunset Mode". What this does is dim the light on every photo I took, making the images all look dark. I had wasted half an hour and decided to try to take them all again. Due to it being my second time around, I walked much faster and the heat began to rise. Underneath a seemingly cool exterior, I was furious. On the other hand, it is not the worst place to spend a lot of time in. The site
was so peaceful with the only sounds coming from birds or the faint drizzle hitting the lily pond surface.
I visited many temples within the main area which were nice enough but I wanted to broaden my horizons. I ventured outside the old city walls. I discovered my nice comfortable push bike was now useless. It had only one gear that was not suited for long distances and any sort of gradient. On top of that my water was running out fast. I ploughed through the pain to discover some stunning temples. At one point I tried to take a photo of my shadow, while riding the bike. Bad idea! I veered off into a roadside ditch. I was lucky in two counts: I was unscathed and nobody saw this act of clumsiness.
Wat Saphan Hin stood on top of a hill of which I had to climb a stone path. A twelve metre high Buddha welcomed me at the top. The Buddha looked over the ancient city and the effort I made became oddly spiritual. I was the only person at the temple and probably miles around too. The only thing that would have made this any
better was a bottle of water. On the way to some more temples, I arrived at a modern oasis. It was a local restaurant that served the best beef fried rice and glass bottles of Coke. Does not sound much, but it was a great reward in the burning heat.
By far the most impressive temple was Wat Si Chum where the site housed a fifteen metre high seated Buddha. Extremely photogenic and a wonder to look at. Many locals came to give gifts or just contemplate on the temple site. My photos will do more than my words can explain. I visited a few more ruins to finish the day and made my way back to treat myself to a watermelon "shake" at my guest house.
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