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Published: February 15th 2007
Sukhothai Wat Si Chum
This Buddha was even cooler in personWhen last you all heard from us we were leaving Phi Phi island and heading to Ao Nang on the mainland. We spent a few days there kayaking inland, hanging on Railey Beach and then kayaking some more off the beach. Railey beach was really cool with these big rock formations, karsts, rising up from the sea. They are limestone and riddled with caves. This area is one of the major sources of the swallow nests for bird nest soup a very popular item in China. Unfortunately as China becomes more affluent the swallows become more threatened. China's appetite for live fish for restaurants is also leading to the destruction of the reefs in the region. To catch the fish alive the "fishermen" use dynamite and cyanide fishing methods which destroys the reef.
From there we headed to Patong on Phuket island. Of course we went there by boat. Hauling all of this dive gear in addition to our backpacks is getting old. Docks are scarce around here. It is always a beach landing or we embark/disembark over three other boats. Leaving Ao Nang we thought it would be clambering over two other ferries from a dock like it
Bhodista
They put these little gold leaves on the Buddha statues to gain merit was on arrival. This time the tide was too low so we had to drag our luggage out the dock down the stairs to the beach, across the beach to waiting longtails (glad I wore my flip flops) and then a 10 minute ride out to the waiting ferry. In Phuket we had to cross two other ferries to get to shore. When we were in Bangkok I really wanted a ride in a longtail but we thought it was too expensive at 400 baht ($11). At this point we have had our fill of longtails, we ride them at least twice per day. We are looking forward to leaving our dive gear in Bangkok and heading north with just our backpacks.
Finding accommodations in Phuket proved to be challenging. I guess we should not be surprised, it's high season at the beach. We spent a lot of time looking and finally settled for a very nice place for about $110. It was the most we've spent so fatr, but at least it was nice. Patong is not really our cup of tea. It is really busy and built up, lots of high rises, hostess bars and strip clubs.
Cheddi
Sukhothai Cheddi But we needed to do a little shopping and the boat left from here.
We met up with our dive operators and our boat left on Jan 21, and, yes, of course we took a longtail out to the dive boat but it was really nice they had a dock and we didn't have to haul our own gear.
The dive boat, the Mermaid II is very nice. Due to a last minute cancellation we were upgraded to a very nice cabin with a king bed. It is quite spacious, for a boat, and the only negative is that it was in the bow over the chain locker. No complaints here.
There were 14 other divers and we were split into 3 dive groups. Our group was led by the lead dive master and videographer PJ (Swedish). Our group consisted of a Canadian ex-pat dude living in Zimbabwe, a South Carolinian guy living in Taiwan, a Swedish gal and Karen and I. There was another group with an American, 2 Canadians, a Brit and a German. The last group we call the paparatzis. These guys were serious photographers, Italian, Argentinian, Spanish and German. We hung out mostly
with the folks from our group who were all very nice. As usual, the divers are mostly kind of nerdy guys, there were only 2 other women diving.
The highlight of the 9 day trip took place in Burma at Black Rock Pinnacle where, on our first dive of the day, we encountered a baby whale shark. At 5 meters it is still a very large fish. What was really unusual about the encounter was that the whale shark swam back and forth around this pinnacle for our whole dive, 60 minutes. When we saw whale sharks in the Galapagos they totally ignored us. The whale sharks swam past us once and kept going. This guy just kept swimming around the pinnacle and us. PJ got amazing video, which we bought at the end of the trip.
Other highlights included 4 Manta rays that swam 'round and 'round with us on one dive, tons of nudibranchs, cuttlefish, squid, octopus, many many lionfish and scorpionfish.....there were a lot of fish on the reef in general. The soft coral was also really beautiful. One disappointment was the Burma banks. This is basically an underwater ridge way out in the open
ocean that have been known in the past for pelagics. We got skunked, 4 drift dives in the blue with nary a big fish in sight. Oh well, you put your money on the table and take your chances.
In retrospect, I think a trip that just did the Similans and Richelieu rock (we only got 2 dives there) would have done the trick, going to Burma didn't add much.....except for the WHALE SHARK!
Another long tail ride (maybe our last in a while but I keep thinking that) back to Patong, a night in a cheap but clean hotel with the thinnest walls I have ever encountered and we were off to Bangkok by air. What started our as really cheap tickets, about $50 each, got more expensive after we had to pay for our excess luggage. We were allowed 40 kg and had 73 kg, the surcharge was $48. Ouch!
We spent a week in Bangkok relaxing and planning our next move, Northern Thailand. We also toured a few more Wats, of course. We hit Chinatown this time too. In general we are liking Bangkok. It felt good returning to someplace where we knew our
way around and we could relax little. The antiques and arts and crafts here are really cool. We have been shopping around a little and are planning on shopping a lot on our next and last pass through Bangkok and shipping a bunch of stuff home.
I got up at 6 in the AM to watch the Superbowl, the first one I've watched in many a year. Damn, I thought that they really might win it for the first 10 minutes! What an opening punt return!
We left Bangkok for Ayutthaya by train the next day, Feb. 6. It's pretty close, most people do it as a day trip from Bangkok, but we were heading north anyway so we spent two nights there. Ayutthaya was the capital of Siam, as Thailand was known before about 1950, until 1767. In that year it was sacked by the Burmese. When the Thais kicked them out a few years later they moved the capital to Thonburi and then a few years later they moved it again across the Chao Phraya river to it's present day location in Bangkok. In it's day it was an amazing city. European visitors described it as
the most advanced and beautiful city of it's day anywhere in the world.
This is where the book/movie The King and I is set. Thailand has banned both the book and the movie on the grounds that they are wildly inaccurate and consequently insulting to the monarchy and the people.
Well the Burmese apparently did a pretty good job of sacking it as the structures from that period are in pretty bad shape. There are still some very impressive ruins and one can get a sense of it's previous grandeur. One thing that makes it a little harder is that the present day city is mixed in with the old city.
Next we continued north to Sukhothai, the capital before Ayutthaya. To get there we caught a train to Pitsanulok, 4 hours, then a bus to the new city of Sukhothai, another hour. It was a pretty good transfer, the train was nicer and cleaner than the one we took to Ayutthaya. In Pitsanulok we took a Tuk-Tuk from train to bus station.
It's kind of funny, un-metered cab drivers are the same everywhere. What ever their first offer is you can usually figure that the
right "local" rate is about half. The other practice encountered is the cabal, this usually happens at stations. This is where one driver offers an outrageous price and refuses to move so you walk away and find another driver. The problem is that the first driver is following you and calling ahead to the new driver what his rate was. Sometimes it can be hard to get another driver to break ranks and you have to just shoulder your pack and walk away from the station and flag a cab a few blocks away. We encountered a variation of this last year on Isla del Sol in Lake Titicaca. They were charging us twice what the rate was to get to the island from the mainland. They held tight and we had to pay them, it was too far to swim.
All in all it was a smooth passage and New Sukhothai was a nice little town. We stayed in a place called the Lotus Garden, it was a nice little place, set among some little ponds away from the bustle of the town.
The old city is 17 km away. We took a public bus back and
Ayuthaya Elephant ride
That's a prang in the background. They often put Buddha relics or king's remains in the Cheddis and Prangs. forth. The way back was kind of a hoot as it was the end of the school day. The driver stopped at the high school and wouldn't leave until the every space on the 3 benches was full and 6 kids were hanging off the back.
The old city was really well preserved. It has suffered the ravages of time but not war. It is also away from the new town. The city is surrounded by a moat that is probably a mile on each side. There is almost no development inside the moat, just ruins and parkland. We rented a couple of beater bikes and toured the park that way. The chedis, prangs and temples were in very good condition considering that they date as far back as the 1200s until 1438 when the capital was moved to Ayutthaya. There are also many intact Buddhas throughout the ruins. Check out the pictures. Our hands down favorite was Wat Si Chum which was built by the Khemers (from Cambodia) before the city was the Thai capital.
We spent two days in Sukhothai and then caught another train north to Nakhom Lampang where I am writing this. Lampang is
not very touristic at all. For the first time we had to order food for lunch using the point at mostly unidentifiable stuff in pots in the kitchen (which, as usual, is all open facing the sidewalk) because there was no real menu and nobody spoke English. No complaints here, it was a very good lunch of what turned out to be a tofu soup with noodles and green curry with chicken. We continue to eat and drink anything we want, from street vendors, night markets and restaurants with no ill effects. We even drink iced beverages!
WATS
We've visited several Wats here in Bangkok. In case this term is new to you, a wat is a Buddhist temple. They usually consist of several chapels and chedi. A chapel is a chapel (I guess I didn't have to explain that) and a chedi is a structure that contains some type of relic. Often it is a Buddha relic, but at least here in Thailand it could also contain a relic from one of the kings, or Rama's as they call them.
They are always really beautiful and we are just beginning to learn about the various
styles and the periods they reflect. Included here are pictures of three Wats we have visited here in Bangkok, The Royal Wat - Wat Phra Kaew, Wat Pho with the giant reclining Buddha and Wat Arun - the temple of the dawn.
Gotta go, I have received complaints about the infrequent posts, my last one was over a month ago, I'll try to do better. In the meantime check out my last post, I finally put some pictures up, and check back here in a few and I will have some pics up. Putting up pics is really slow.
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Patrick
non-member comment
Finally!!!
Hey, you guys. Great blog. Have a much better understanding of what things are like there and how it is going. Good to hear everything is going well. Catch you soon. Patrick