Blogs from Sukhothai, North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 15

So right now we're in Sukhothai. The original capital of Thailand. It was a 5 hour train ride north out of Bangkok, and an hour trip in a songtaew to get here. A songtaew is basically a pickup truck w benches in the back. We were all comletely covered in dust when we finally arrived at No. 4 Guesthouse. I didn't see any other numbers, but ours is called No. 4. It's a nice place, the owners are very, very friendly. Last night they cooked us this giant buffet. Some very spicy dishes included. Really good though. We also tried some local hooch. When we asked our tour guide what it was, she replied moonshine. Hehe. Yep, it's great for degreasing engines, removing paint and killing braincells. After dinner, we headed into town to a place ... read more

A brief comment about Thai transport. The rail network is not extensive and is slow. There is a national bus network (also not exactly rapid) serving many destinations, but within towns and in more rural districts this is supplemented by fleets of songthaews (pronounced "song tao"). Though these come in different sizes, the standard one consists of 2 facing benches in the back of a vehicle (the name means something like "2 rows"). Some ply fixed routes, but most operate on the principles of i) picking up people going roughly in the same direction, and ii) not going anywhere until a financially viable number of passengers has clambered in. I took my first songthaew to Ayutthaya bus station in order to catch a bus to Sukhothai. In hindsight, I think the driver kicked out his existing ... read more

J'ai fais un petit trip il y a une semaine qui m'a ammener a Sukhothai, situe au sud est de chiang mai... je suis parti en motorbike et ca ma pris 7h aller et 8h retour...j'ai dormi dans une petite ville appeller Tak la premiere nuit car j'etait epuiser et je ne pouvais plus conduire car il fesait nuit...j'ai visite l'ancienne ville de sukhothai le lendemain et j'ai echouer dans un guesthouse charmant du nom de Ban thai...j'ai visite le site de si satchanalay le lendemain et j'ai rencontrer des amis avec qui j'ai bu du whisky thai(80% alcool) une bonne partie de la journee...je suis revenu sur chiang mai le lendemain en passant par den chai et lampung... La visite de ce coin de pays vaut vraiment le detour...... read more

Sukothai is a small town an hour west of Phitsanulok by a local teeth-rattling bus. Home of Thailand's most impressive World Heritage site, Old Sukothai is best discovered by bike. I visited the Sukothai Historical Park during the day which was a pity as it would have been nicer to see in morning or evening light. I did it from 11am to 4pm which was of course the hottest time of day! Here I quote my Lonely Planet: "The park includes remains of 21 historical sites and four large ponds within the old walls, with an additional 70 sites within a 5km radius". Needless to say, I only managed about a quarter of the whole thing but I think I saw most best bits. I met a German girl in the bus back who was doing ... read more

It took 7 hours from Chiang Mai to the town of Phitsolanuk. Then from there it's another 1 hour on the bus to the historical town of Sukothai. Even though there's maps in our guidebook. Whenever we arrive in a new city, it's dissorienting. Phitsolanuk is a rather boring town so the tuk tuks know when they see tourists that we're just passing through to Sukothai. We decided to take the bus to the bus station, from there we take the 1 hour bus to town. Hope that makes sense! it's been a month since we've been on the road, and I figure we're still getting a hang of the system. This time I think we really figured it out. The first bus we found brought us to a private bus station, where the private busses ... read more