Thai history and culture in Sukhothai

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And now for something completley different after the madness of Ko Samui and Ko Panagan. On the 6th March Shane and I set off for Bangkok arriving late that night. I had a cool stop over in Bangkok. Everytime I visit this city I get a better impression of it! On the 7th still in Bangkok I went bargain hunting round Koh San road. That evening I headed to a massive shopping centre called MBK. This was truly 1st world Thailand in action. The place was huge at 7 stories selling everything you can imagine. We had a bit of R ‘n’ R in the arcade before heading to a Japanese restaurant in the mall for one of the best meals I have ever eaten.

On the 8th we caught a bus to a town half way between Chiang Mai and Bangkok called Sukhothai. This was the location of the 1st Thai capital established some 700 years ago when a separate Thai culture broke away from the Khmer empire. As a result there are a vast number of impressive temples and ruins in the area.

After spending a night in the new town, where there was literally nothing to do there, we got up early and headed to the old town where we spent the day exploring the ruins. A few of them were truly stunning, it was a calming experience to walk around the well kept parks and explore each historic sight in turn. It was also nice to do something constructive after the madness of the islands! There was a lot to see and both Shane and I were very impressed by the culture, history and beauty of the area.

Other than explore the ruins there was not a lot else to do in the area so that evening we headed up to the next town via government bus which cost 60p for 60 km! When we arrived we had to wait for our night train so we killed the time by exploring a colorful night market and sampling the many culinary delights that were on offer to us.

Next stop - Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. Enjoy the pictures.

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Photos

Tranquility
A stunning park contaning many temples dating back 700 years.

Intresting tuk tuk
Our driver and reverse motobike contraption thingy!

Exploring the ruins
Some temples were in a state of disrepair where as others were well maintained.

An enclosed Budda
It's hard to get an apprechiation of the scale, the hand alone was as big as me.

Buddist monks
Monks taking time to meditate amoung the ruins.

Ummm!
A well deserved street meal was in order after all that exploration!

Comments

[Nini]

Hey babe, Just finished reading your blog i like pic. it's quite well .How are you boy? and where r u? Have a good trip. keep in touch and take care xx