Sukhothai - Ruin Capital of Siam

We got a slow start this morning on account of sleeping poorly in our noisy and poorly climate controlled room, and then slowed ourselves down further by moving to another hotel. Then we had a confusing talk with the woman at our hotel about where to go to catch the mini-bus. We thought she was telling us to go left out of the hotel for 50 minutes then cross the street and stand at the bus stop. That didn't seem right to us, but she was somewhat insistent and finally said she would take us one at a time on her motorcycle, which would take 1 minute. And so it came to pass that Mary took her first motorcycle ride of her life and tried not to think about her sister's motorcycle scars or lack of helmet. After about, oh, 50 yards, it became apparent that she was telling us to go 50 meters not 50 minutes, and that's what the 50 m on the map was all about. Duh! Josh, seeing Mary disembark so close, figured it out and chose to remain a motorcycle virgin.

We got out to the Historic Park and rented our bikes by the crack of noon, but right off needed to start with a sit in the shade and some Thai iced tea. In the name of staying cool and hydrated, of course. Okay, at least in the name of staying cool.

They don't seem to sell the combined pass described in our guidebook anymore, so we just stuck to the main ruin area within the city walls and the biggest museum. At the inflated tourist UNESCO World Heritage prices, entry to everything would have been more than our total daily budget. Remembering our hot day in Ayutthaya, we decided to think of this more as leisurely cycling among pretty ruins than real ruin exploration, which is good for keeping yourself seated in the breeze. Also, there was good shade most of the time. We only got off for the few most impressive monuments. I will let the photos speak for themselves.

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This last appears to be a modern monument, though we couldn't find an English sign, so we have no idea what it is about.

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Then we had a good late lunch, which involved spending more money on cold drinks than on food. It's crazy: a liter and a half of cold water OR a fruit smoothie costs about 80% of a typical meal, if both come from street vendors.

After, we went through the museum, which was blessedly air conditioned, and also had some pretty artifacts, including some really lovely old Thai inscriptions in stone slabs (the oldest Thai writing ever found, I believe), more Buddhas than you can shake a stick at, and Mary's personal favorite: a collection of old pottery recovered from an underwater site and still sporting barnacles.

Upon returning to our hotel in the late afternoon, we discovered, to our disappointment, that it lacks cold water in the afternoon. Guess there's a reason some hotels advertise "hot and cold shower." We'd been taking the cold water for granted.

The Internet is cheap at our hotel, so that's what we did after dinner.