Summary
Sunday 11th September - Day 10
Long ol bus journey from Ayutthaya to Sukhothai
Staying in the old city - Old Boutique Hotel
Nicola’s first Pandang curry
Late evening walk round the Central Park, Wats and night market
Monday 12th September - Day 11
Wat cycle tour round Sukhothai
Made friends with a local restaurant - served a butterfly pea drink and given a shed load of buds
Ramkhamhaeng National Museum
Chronicle
Because you can never get enough temples (turns out Thailand has over 40,000 of them) we decided to continue the ruined city vibes and travel over to Sukhothai, the ancient capital of modern day Thailand established in 1238 (prior to being taken over by Autthaya). If you are interested in a short history of Thailand there are some semi decent YouTube videos that give a decent overview.
Getting to Sukhothai however did not appear overly straight forward when researching. Settled for an overpriced ‘tour’ ticket rather than going directly to the bus terminal in Ayutthaya but overall the cost was minimal and the ease of it made it worthwhile in hindsight. The pick up from the hostel drove us directly to the coach, which was quite a drive away anyway, and then slogged it up the country from 9.30am to 4pm. Couldn’t complain about the extra leg room we had in our seats but the constant dripping onto Nicola’s leg from the AC could have been done without.
We tuk tuk’d to the Sukhothai old city where our hostel and all the attractions are, and quickly left for food despite it being hella early. First restaurant round the corner we ducked into which was run by an English expat who moved over just before COVID - his local business was completely shut for 2 years due to lockdown and the lack of tourists. Conversation started through his very jazzy lime green football shirt of the local team Sukhothai FC, who, in an hour we're about to play Bangkok. The guy was prepared to drive us over to the game which Luke would have taken them up on if current levels of hunger and tiredness hadn’t existed. Turns out it was a good thing anyway as the game finished 0-0 and Luke’s stomach was turning over backwards again…
With sunset approaching, although you can never tell as the evenings are unbelievably dark and grey, we wondered around the Central Park of the old city which was free post 6pm (win). We managed to tick off most of the Wats in this park area and it was lovely have a bit of green space that was quiet and calm with a short night market that lit up part of the park. After wondering around for a bit, Luke’s immense concentration on his stomach cramps began lapsing so decided not to push that much further.
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Turns out the Sukhothai old city isn’t particularly great for quick breakfast food. Usually we have been able to roll around street vendors and get fruit, eggs, rice etc but literally was none of this. Not wanting a sit down meal we settled on some of the items in 7-11 that didn’t look odd… the disparity of what we consider normal items to have in a supermarket is quite stark. Pandang cake and a microwave mini pizza were consumed sitting at the island temple across the bridge in the old city.
Part 2 of the bike tours commenced. Except this time the bikes were unbelievably shite. Nicola’s first bike had narrow handlebars and the wheel wasn’t aligned to them. Changed her bike. This one the brakes didn’t work all that well but again, we didn’t plan to tear it up so settled on this one. Luke’s bike - initially given to Nicola as he’s a gent - found out the chain and pedals were somehow locked to the speed of the bike. Slowing down meant the pedals would lock and spin (rather than being able to just stop peddling) and this led to some pretty ropey tactics. Luke again took over this bike (gent). Luke essentially had to either stick his legs out as if he’s lost control and never ridden a bike before, or rest them on the middle of the frame while free wheeling down the road… settled on the later but looked mighty special.
The cycling was much more fun than Ayutthaya however. Sukhothai is clearly far less travelled so the roads were quieter and we barely saw any tourists. Slight issue with trying to find tickets for the Wats so had to cycle back on ourselves a fair bit but eventually worked out. The strava map below shows the route we took which involved viewing through cycling past most of them as a lot are fairly small. One of the farther Wats involved a slight slog up a hill which was greatly enjoyed by Luke and not so much by Nicola.
Back to Sukhothai FC restaurant for lunch (quite limited food options around) and were given a butterfly pea drink, the owner assuring us it wasn’t ropey and if it was, then hospital is pretty close by. The 5 buds are boiled in hot water then put over ice where it comes out a vivacious blue. The party trick is adding lime and it slowly changes to a purple colour and has the effect of diluting the sweetness slightly. It was an enjoyable freebie and the Thai chef gave us a bag full of of the buds which was overly nice of them. Don’t think a bag full of blue flowers is suspicious? Think Nicola’s baggie of washing powder looks worse.
Weather got a bit crap so decided on wanting some history, given we knew nothing of Sukhothai at this point. Pretty disappointed with the Ramkhamhaeng National Museum, didn’t learn all that much and was pretty wam. Back to a coffee shop for further future trip planning.
Once it hit 6pm again we were back in the central town park for a walk and see the last Wat. Food at a clearly popular local takeaway restaurant was ok but nothing special. Got back to the hotel to pack before our bus the next day to Chiang Mai.
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