Cycling around Sukhothai

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After reading through the must see places in Thailand we were intrigued by Sukhothai, a city with a Unesco site park that you can cycle around the visit many temple ruins.

Despite the rain we set of to the old city - a short bus journey from the new city where we are staying, and rented two bikes for the day - for the grand sum of 30 baht each (less than 70pence). The historical park was very easy to navigate with the map we were provided, and split up into seperate zones that were 100 baht each to enter. We chose to stick to two zones, the main inner city and the northern zone.

On our way back from visiting Wat Si Chum, a 13th century temple famous for housing an extremely large buddha statue, we stopped at a small roadside restaurant for lunch as the ladies had shouted 'hello' to us on our way to Wat Si Chum, and they were extremely friendly. After feeling refreshed we headed over to Wat Phra Pai Luang, another impressive temple also covered by the same entry ticket. Both of these temples were 2km from the main city, and as we were hungry we came back to the main road in between, extending that part of our cycle ride to 8km just for 2 temples! The surrounding countryside and the glimpse of local life made the cycling very enjoyable, and I almost forgot how uncomfortable my saddle was after not cycling for many years!

After spending more of the afternoon visiting various temple remains in the inner city we had a mild case of temple fatigue, but as we still had our bikes we decided to head away from the main tourist area a bit and off down a side road to see more of the countryside, and the real Thailand, not just the overly touristy parts. 1.5km down the road we decided we had experienced enough of the countryside and the saddles of our bikes, and that it was definitely time to go back to drop our bikes off and find some food back in the new city! We treated ourselves to a restaurant rather then street food as we felt we deserved the luxury after a day of cycling - and the nice cushioned seats were definitely a bonus!

Overall we had a great day - I'm quite pleased with myself for cycling over 14km, after not having cycled for years, and I would happily rent a bike again tomorrow if I were to be provided with a more comfortable saddle! I know however that I will be sore tomorrow, so no more bikes for a few days.

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