Sukothai

After  a few days exploring bangkok we head north to Sukothai. Sounds funny doesnt it, like suck a thai. We took an early morning train for 4 hours. The train was rather basic and very rickety,  it really felt like it was going to fall apart with every bump it hit, but despite that the long journey was fun.

We had been lucky so far in Thailand and had been using western toilets and had been quite spoilt with a good choice of food. The food we were served on the train was dry rice with a bit of dry shredded meat, I have no idea which meat, there were the odd peas chucked in there too. Thankfully I had filled my back pack with biscuits so I didnt have to eat it. The toilet on the train was just a hole cut out of the floor. The door didnt shut. It swang open. We had to go to the toilet in twos, one holding the door shut while the other tried to balance above this hole, concentrate on peeing through the whole rather than all over your shoes all the while not falling over cos of the bumpy ride.

The views were beautiful. We had been in the city for days so were surrounded by people and lots of buildings, beautiful, but it was great to see the country side. Rolling green fields, farmer walking their animals, and children riding their make shift bicicles through the narrow lanes of the fields. The train was very slow, I think really the jorney was only meant to be an hour, but cos the train was so old it took so long.

Once we arrived in sukothai we had two big  cars waiting to take us to our accommodation. Once we arrived at our hotel we all thought we had died and gone to heaven. We were staying in such a beautiful place. We were paid up in twos and each given a very large, beautiful, bungalow. The bungalows were spread out across a fair sized garden. All of the bungalows had two king size beds in and big bath tubs in the outside bathroom. Now, outside bathroom sounds weird, but it was actually lovely. Imagine a nice big bath tub, outside, hidden by bamboo walls, surrounded by flowers and monkeys. Actually pretty sweet. All around the bungalows were small ponds filled with lilly pads and pretty pink flowers. There was one big pond that had a small jetty going into the middle of the pond.

Sukothai was a small historical town. It had an outside swimming pool just a few minutes from our hotel so as we had a free afternoon we all headed off to the swimming pool. Sukothai isnt a very touristic town, many tourists dont even know it exists, so imagine all the childrens faces when a bunch of white kids turn up at their swimming pool. They all loved us and wanted us to play in the pool and on the water slides with them.

I, being the class clown, decided to go down the slide head first and I head butted a small child as I entered the pool. Not my fault, honest.

In the evening we went to Hillary's favorite restaurant. The food was wonderful. the special dish up north is spinach and garlic, with a bit of spice, I had that with rice and some chicken, it was bloody lovely, and I was instantly hooked. From then on every restaurant we went to I would order that. We spent time over dinner chatting about the next few days plans then went on to a small bar next door that had a great live band on.

The next day we headed out to Sukothai's historical town, about 10 minutes away by tuk tuk. Upon arrival we all rented bikes with baskets and cool horns. Very much like my bike I have at home. We were given the day to split up and go and explore. Sukothai was massive, it took a good 6 hours to cycle around and enjoy all the sites.  Sukhothai,is a UNESCO World Heritage Cultural Site, famous for its ancient temples. 1000 years ago, Sukhothai was the capital of Thailand. Today it is a tranquil riverside town. We explore the complex of temple ruins by bicycle all day, climbing the temples and stopping for lunch along the way. There were plenty of food stalls set up around the site.

It was a great day and sukothai was one of my favourite temples. We returned to the hotel that night and had a chilled evening in our bungalows, aching a bit from all the bike riding !