Sukhothai Historical Park

On Friday we spent the day touring the ruins of the old city of Sukhothai, the first capital of Siam. This city was established in the 1300’s and its architecture is considered to be the most classic of Thai styles. Here, there are 45 sq kilometers of ruins with the walls and moats, gateways still mostly intact! It was very surreal touching and walking through these ruins. It was hot as hell, but nevertheless, we rented bikes and rode through this park until we were on the verge of death and then finished the remote areas in our car. Ted actually rode his wife around piggyback on his bike all day! Pretty impressive! Roger’s day also included intermittent interviews by Thai school children that were sent into the park to find “falangs” and practice their English with a list of scripted questions!! At the end of the day, we met a cold Singha (Thai beer) and the swimming pool at the hotel with great enthusiasm!

Like a College Road Trip

On Wednesday evening we had a restful nights sleep at the very reasonable, nice for price, and centrally located Jansom House Guesthouse in Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai has a “night bazaar”, which we attended, similar to Chiang Mai (music, food, deals, etc) but less claustrophobic. Thursday morning, we arose a continued our college like road trip across northern Thailand. So far, we have covered close to 1500 Kilometers and it has been absolutely beautiful! The car rental is definitely worth it. If you haven’t done a bus or a train, you should….ONCE…….for the experience but if you can help it you won’t do it again!! Lol. On Thursday we drove from Chiang Rai to the city of Lampang. Here, we stopped for a few hours and checked out what is touted as the most beautiful wooden (teak) Lanna temple in northern Thailand, Wat Phra That Lampang Luang. We agree. It is also the oldest wooden building existing in Thailand. It was constructed in 1476 and has been very well protected and preserved and was unique in the sense of it’s age, open air interior, and wooden teak construct.

We then moved on to the city of Phrae, where we supported the local economy buying some indigo dyed cotton farmer’s shirts, or “seua maw hawm” which are only made here and are very popular throughout Thailand. This is also an area known for it’s teak furniture production, which was nice, however…..how can we bring it back??? Lol.

Alas, we ended up in Sukhothai at the Ruean Thai Hotel and slept like babies.