Sukhothai
I had this long entry that I had written up and the whole system just lost it. I’m pretty annoyed.
We’re in Sukhothai in Northern Thailand right now. Today, we went to the Sukhothai Historical Park (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sukhothai_historical_park) with the group. We got up this morning, had food, and went out to the site in the back of a truck. We were then put on bicycles and we rode around the ruins as a group for about four or so hours. We stopped at the various ruined wats (temples) and statues, while things were explained, and took many photos.
Sukhothai is the original Thai kingdom. It is considered the “First Kingdom” by Thai people (we are in the fourth now). The Thai system of writing was invented there by the king and it was a heavily Khmer influenced region.
We are on tour with a group of twelve people plus our guide. The breakdown, so far, is me and R, two Quebecquois Canadians, two English Canadians, a family of three Australians, an American Journalist, a young Swiss women, and a fellow from the UK who used to be an IT headhunter. So far, the group is getting along pretty well. We’ve been hanging out together (I’m with the English fellow right now) and cracking jokes, drinking, etc.
It is Tuesday afternoon here. Yesterday morning, we got up early, weaved in taxis through Bangkok traffic and went to the train station. There we took a five hour train to a town and then piled into the back of a truck for an hour ride to Sukhothai. We’re staying at “Guest House #4″, which is a series of bungalow cabins around a central building with a dining room upstairs and a kitchen downstairs. It is warm here (in the 80s) and humidity is high. The dining area has no walls (that whole building doesn’t) and our cabins are pretty open to the air. We’re using mosquito nets here on the beds in order to keep the bugs out.
Tomorrow, we take a bus (I believe) to another city further north. Following that, we’ll be staying with the Hill People on Thursday and Friday. We’ll end in Chiang Mai on Saturday/Friday evening and then come back to Bangkok on Sunday.
R and I have another five days in Bangkok once we get back at the China Princess Hotel.
I’m going to go look for a Singha Beer now…
