Advertisement
Published: January 25th 2009
Edit Blog Post
Asian bird flu hits...
I am sniffing the Thai version of Olbas Oil. It brings tears to your eyes! Ross:
After a short cab ride to Bangkok train station, we waited patiently on the platform for our second class air-conditioned train to Phitsanulok. Pol made use of the toilet but was somewhat perplexed at the number of trans-sexuals sharing the facilities with her. Eventually our train rolled into the station a few minutes late. We had been assigned seats when we booked our tickets and ended up sat near a very chatty girl from Washington DC, which occupied the majority of the first half of the journey. We hadn't realised but the ticket price included a full meal service of some nondescript meat mixture and rice, tea/coffee and savoury nibbles - all very sophisticated. Unfortunately, the over-powerful air-conditioning meant that the journey was decidedly nippy, although Polly's motion sickness didn't make an appearance which was a relief.
We arrived in Phitsanulok (known to the locals as Pilok) at about 3pm, and after marching around in search of a hotel, settled for a room in a place near the food market. We booked a couple of nights there then headed back to the train station to reserve seats on a train to Chang Mai for Tuesday, before enquiring about
Our set dinner in Phitsanulok
Given that our stomachs have shrunk, this was a little ambitious buses to the nearby ancient ruins at Sukhothai. We didn't get much sense out of the folks at the nearby bus stop so decided to wing it the following day. We topped the day off with a slap-up set menu dinner of fish with ginger and spring onions, stir fried veg, yellow potato and chicken curry, pork in red curry sauce, rice and a fresh fruit platter, costing us a little over four quid. After dinner we struggled home with full bellies to crash out, both still feeling a bit rough from the doxycyline, and with Polly now developing a full blown cold.
There's not a fat lot to do in Phitsanulok, but it serves as a good base from which to visit the old city of Sukhothai, about an hour away by bus. After getting up at about 9am the next morning I popped out to grab some coffee and croissants whilst Polly surfaced. A middle-aged homeless woman with a toothless grin offered me some 'boom-boom' on the way back, but muttered an embarrassed 'solly' when I failed to stifle a laugh - all a bit too much at nine o'clock in the morning whilst juggling two cups
of coffee and a bag of pastries...
After wolfing down breakfast we headed to the local bus stop and jumped on the first bus. The conductor seemed highly amused when we asked if we'd got the Sukhothai bus, but nodded nonetheless so we paid the surprisingly cheap 9 Baht fare and took a seat. Just as the bus pulled away the conductor announced 'Sukhothai' much to the amusement of the rest of the passengers. Feeling like the butt of a joke, we weren't too sure exactly where we were going, but when the little local bus eventually pulled into the main Phitsanulok Bus Terminal, we realised our mistake.
The proper Sukhothai coach was just about to leave so we hopped on and paid the 64 Baht fare for the hour trip. The coach dropped us outside a bicycle hire place, and knowing that the ruins were fairly spread out, we hired a bike each for the day. We cycled round to the main entrance of the historical park, paid the entrance fee and had a good three hours marvelling at the ancient ruins. Sukhothai was the original capital of the Thai kingdom, established after the Khmer empire was
overthrown in the 13th century. The ruins consist of numerous 'wats' (temples) incorporating large buddha statues, 'praang' (spires) and 'chedi' (towers), spread out over a 5km radius. The ruins are surrounded by moats, lakes, wooded and grassy areas, and with hardly anyone else there apart from a few stray dogs and weird cows, we more or less had the place to ourselves. After far too many 'What wat?' jokes we ambled back to the bus stop where we devoured a quick Pad Thai and iced coffee at a nearby hawker stall before bussing it back to Pilok. We were both thoroughly pleased that we'd made the effort to get to Sukhothai as it was truly impressive. We concentrated our cycle tour to the central area of the park but could've spent much longer touring some of the outer locations had we not seen so much already. I just hope Angkor Wat lives up to it's reputation now.
Polly had a funny turn when we got back to Phitsanulok Bus Terminal and decided she wanted to navigate back to the hotel on foot. Some hours later we finally arrived back on familiar turf. Pol indulged in a Thai massage to
get over the stress of map reading whilst I had a beer and read my book at a cafe on the river. Afterwards we stopped off for a quick dinner of chicken and cashew nuts (minus the chicken!) and coconut soup at a little corner cafe near our hotel, then to bed.
The next morning after breakfast we checked out and headed back to the train station for our onward train to Chiang Mai. The guy at the ticket office informed us that the train had been delayed for two hours so we caught up with a few internet tasks back in the hotel lobby, finally boarding our train at 4.30pm, three hours later than planned. Due to the delay and a few technical hitches along the way, we didn't arrive in Chiang Mai until gone midnight.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.157s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 15; qc: 67; dbt: 0.086s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb