Sukhothai Old City

Ayuthaya to Sukhothai

Caught the bus yesterday from Ayuthaya to a place called New Sukothai which has a historical park near by. The journey was actually quite enjoyable and flew by considering it took 5 and a half hours. It was a local bus and possibly the best bus ive been on. They had a TV and a waitress (like htey used to have on the national express buses) and they gave me a goodie bag containing water and a muffin when I boarded. We stopped at a 'service station' for some food after about 3 hours which was included in the price of the bus ticket. The Pat Tha looked the safest option and was pretty tasty. I didn't really know what was going on but fortunatly a thai girl was there who spoke good English and told me what was happening.

One of the many many Watts in Sukhothai Park

I went to the historical park today which contains vast numbers of old Watts. I hired a bike with a dutch person I met on the bus that morning and we cycled to all the old sites that were in the area. One of the routes was a 5k ride where lots of the Watts sat on hill tops. One involved a 200 meter climb to the top. It was quite nice cycling through the Thai countryside seeing all the rice fields and watching the locals going about there daily routines (which looked like lying down and doing as little as possible). It was a pretty hot day and I got through 2 and a half big bottles of water in about 3 hours. I'm not sure why most of the Watts were not in good condition. Most of them were build circa 1200 but only re-discovered a few hundred years ago. Im suspecting it has something to the Burmese again but I could be wrong. Unfortuantly the lonely planet guide which I rely on for most of my facts didn't explain this.

Watt at the top of a big hill

It looks like I timed the trip perfectly because when I got back in the late afternoon (Ive got my own bungalow set in the gardens of a guest house) it started raining big time. Im leaving for Chiang Mai tomorrow which is another long journey. I only have 6 days left on my Thai Visa so at the moment im planning to make my way to Laos after Chang Mai which is to the East of Thailand.