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

It Isn't Business As Usual Pre-Covid, Thailand was one of the easiest non-English speaking countries to navigate. One could simply step into any of the numerous agencies and book transport and day tours. When planning this trip, I was a little concerned about whether the usual backpacker transport routes were running between Chiang Mai and Sukhothai (as it turns out, they weren't), and I was also a little concerned about the risk of being crammed into a minibus. Fortunately, Paul saved the day once again. His wife Renu had gone to her hometown of Kamphaeng Phet to vote, and Paul was planning to drive down, visit her family, and then drive her back. As Sukhothai was a short diversion, he offered to drive me. Our drive took about 4.5 hours with stops en route for coffee ... read more

C’est reparti pour un quart de tour de planète, Thailande et Myanmaragain. Vol assuré par Jet Airways, compagnie indienne (Salut la compagnie !), je vais manger indien. A l’escale de Mumbai (Bombay), c’est le bordel à l’indienne, il est minuit et demi, il fait 29° dehors, ça doit ramollir le ciboulot des fonctionnaires chargés du transit et de la sécurité. Les britanniques ont imprimé la rigueur dans l’esprit des administratifs locaux. La rigueur, en Inde, est synonyme d’excès de zèle autoritaire. Et cet excès de zèle, qu’ils mènent avec un sérieux interplanétaire, conduit inévitablement à l’allongement des files, à la bousculade des sacs, laptops, ceintures dénouées et autres objets qu’on demande aux voyageurs de bien vouloir déposer sur le tapis de l’IRM à bagages. Les français du vol pour Bangkok angoissent un peu car le temps ... read more

Très court article car pas grand chose à dire mais j'essaie quand même d'écrire un article par endroit ! Nous sommes arrivés à Sukothai lorsque le marché nocturne s'installait. Nous avons goûté de nombreuses spécialités à différents étals. Le lendemain, j'étais malade et je suis restée à l'auberge de jeunesse toute la journée tandis que Shaun est parti faire un tour de vélo dans la vieille ville. Le lendemain, nous sommes partis pour Chiang Mai - un long voyage de plus de 6 heures en bus. ... read more

Geo: 17.013, 99.7497Or at least a drizzle. It rained this morning just before we left but it was sunny all day. Of course I forgot my sunscreen so now I'm a bit red.Sukothai is the oldest capital, or should I say ex capital, of the country so what you can see here are old ruins of tempels. In the central zone they are still in a not too bad shape but we also went to the North zone where hardly anything is left. A pity cause one of the temples must have been big and beautiful.We also discovered they have owls in Thailand. How? We've been geocaching, looked in a hollow tree and woke one up. Most caches were hidden near all the different ruins and tempels and made a good guide.... read more

So it’s riding day 7. The weather today was HOT and my ass is really starting to hurt. Oh, and did I mention that I had extremely spicy food last night and I ate dried squid from a street vendor? I did all I could today just to stay upright on my bike. Ah… what a morning. สวัสดี S̄wạs̄dī - Hello from the beautiful, ancient city of Sukhothai, Thailand! After breakfast, we left the city of Nan and rode through more winding mountainous roads along the Nan River until reaching the Sirikit Dam Reservoir. In order to shave about an hour and a half off our ride today, we boarded a wooden ferry and took the motorcycles across the reservoir. After crossing the reservoir, we continued riding for about another two hours until reaching the Sirikit ... read more