Sukhothai

Last weekend was a three-day weekend, so I decided to take the opportunity to head to Sukhothai, the city that was the capital of Thailand before Ayutthaya. Finding out exactly how to get there made for an interesting time--there's no bus from Doembang to that part of Thailand, and not even a bus from Suphanburi to Sukhothai. The closest thing to a straight line, as far as I could work out, would be to head south for an hour on a bus to Suphanburi, then east on a bus to Ayutthaya, and then get a bus going north to Sukhothai. Altogether, it would have been about a ten hour journey, not counting waiting for different buses. So I decided to take my normal bus from Doembang to Bangkok, and get a bus from Bangkok to Sukhothai. It was still a nine-and-a-half hour trip, and I felt a little silly going south just to go farther north, but at least the waiting at Mo Chit station in Bangkok was minimal. But, on the downside, the trip pretty much took up my entire Friday.

This is where I stayed in Sukhothai:

The owners and staff were incredibly friendly and helpful. Plus, it was a really good price--only 300 baht per night. The only down-side was the shared bathroom, but even that wasn't too bad. 

The actual tourist attraction, the Old City, is about a fifteen minute songtaew-ride away from where everyone in Sukhothai lives and shops, in the New City. I slept in a bit on Saturday, had breakfast just before nine at the restaurant in the guest house (which served pancakes!) and headed off to the Old City in company with a nice couple from Germany. 

Bike shops were right by the park entrance, with bikes priced at 30 baht for the entire day. Since the park is absolutely HUGE, it was definitely worth renting a bike. I spent most of the rest of the day biking around the ruins and the fields in between them, taking loads of pictures, and wandering around the festival that was going on in the central portion of the park. (I had pad thai served in a dish made out of a stapled banana leaf.) The park was beautiful and hot and divided into five portions, which each cost a hundred baht to enter. I spent hours just cycling around, not in any hurry, and I only went through the central and northern sections, which should give you an idea of how spread out all the ruins were. The amount of pictures I took is a little ridiculous, so I'll just share my favorites here, to give you an idea of the highlights. 

So . . . yeah. I could easily have spent even longer on Saturday wandering around and taking pictures. On Sunday, I got up early and repeated the nine-and-a-half hour trip to get home. But Saturday made both trips totally worth it!