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Published: March 6th 2010
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Sukhothai
Offerings to Buddha (I'm not going to lie to you, I may be a bit behind - but will continue to finish the blog from London, all a bit hazy though!)
At Chiang Mai we got a tuk tuk out to the public bus station and battled past some dragons at the Tourist Information Desk who seemed to feel that their job was to guard their info like golden eggs, hissing and snapping at anyone foolish enough to intrude too close. But on we battled, and finally victorious, we found the bus to Sukhothai and off we trotted, ready for some temples.
Arrived in the early afternoon and found a hotel with bungalows and a swimming pool - it had just opened hence a low price and we could afford it - sure the price will go up soon. A lovely old lady showed us around with great pride, and then we went for a wander around town. The town itself was refreshing - not entirely geared to tourists (despite the lure of the temples), with its grimey corners and people going about their day to day business. The open rivers in some of the backstreets smelt pretty much like sewers (but
Sukhothai
Concentration! still with signs of fishing!), and there were the usual gangs of lame dogs everywhere, not helped by their love of lying in roads and the crazy Thai drivers.
That night we ate in the night market which was pretty much entirely for tourists with not a single thai customer. On the way we had noticed a funfair in the grounds of a Buddhist temple and called in on the way back. It was crammed full of Thais and the aim seemed to be to celebrate the building of a new temple building. Tiles were being raised on to the roof in decorated pullies, we later found out that people were buying and donating them, and I thing writting their names or messages on them. Nearly every stall was either a shooting gallery or darts game - pop the balloons or knock over the bails and get a flourescent teddy which looked like it would burst in to flames as soon as the sun came up - we had a go but were rubbish! Got a good laugh from everyone though. Food stalls were bbqing various meaty things, or selling popcorn or sweets. At one point some monks started
Sukhothai
Large Buddha prayers, briefly distracting the crowd from the darts games. We headed off, and got back to our bungalow....just in time for the fireworks. And so legged it back to the celebrations.
Next day we got up fairly early and caught the bus (in the style of a large covered pickup with wooden benches running the length of the back) out to Old Sukhothai - the site of the first capital of the Thai kingdom, with the remains of stone Buddhist temples built since the 13th Century - and then hired bikes to get around. We were a bit pieved at the cost, you have to pay for the various quaters and it doesn't work out cheap for tourists. Like Ankgor, the remains of the other city buildings etc. had decayed away, the temples being the only stone buildings. But generally they were very badly ruined, the floors, some walls and pillars remaining, as well as loads of Buddhas, from a few to ten's of meters in height, gazing over the ruins and tourists. Many of them had offerings of marigolds and other flowers, threaded in to strings, draped across their hands. The northern part was even more ruined than
Sukhothai
Lotus flowers the other quaters, the woodland and scrub surrounding the area, quiet ruins and large silted up moat making a haven for birds - luckily I didn't have my binoculars otherwise marital strife may have followed! I'm sure lots of the birds were very common, they included swallows and martins swooping over the waterbodies; acrobatic and electric coloured bee-eaters; Chinese pond herons stalking through the swampy growth; glossy elegant black drongos perched in the scrub; and a bird like a whoopee (maybe it was even a whoopee) taking flight from the grasslands and keeping a close eye on us. There was also a weird scattering of dead animals around the place - toads, pigeons, cats and dogs - which was a bit sinister! But the temples were nice!
After the temples and back at our guesthopuse, we had a wee swim which was a bit of a luxury, ate a very over-priced meal at a restaurant over-rated in Lonely Planet (can't remember its name) and got ready to hit Bangkok the next day.
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