Sukhothai - The Dawn of Happiness

We took our first trip out of the city last weekend.....and made it back!! We traveled to Sukhothai, Thailand north of Bangkok about 7 hours. We were excited to meet up with Jess and Alex, friends from orientation and have some true English conversations - haha!

Thailand has an far-reaching bus system making it easy to travel throughout the country – as long as you can navigate it. We traveled to the central bus station in Bangkok, it was more like a huge airport! Two floors plus outside full of bus ticket booths, food courts, and a countless number of bus bays. We got a 2^nd class ticket (air-condition but no bathroom) to Sukhothai but it left later than we hoped so we were able to grab some supper before the long drive. We boarded the bus to start our journey. We stopped at various bus stops and stations along the way, making the journey even longer. At each stop passengers getting off and on. We finally rolled into Sukhothai around 2AM! We wondered around looking for a cheap hostel or hotel to spend the night. Lucky we spotted a cheap(less than $10) hotel right across the street – perfect! In the morning our new challenge arose – how to get to the old city. Again, luckily, a helpful local helped us get onto a bus (a truck where passengers sit in the covered truck bed) which took us to the old historical city.

 

We stopped for some brunch while waiting for Jess and Alex to arrive – so good to see them again! After brunch we walked back 2km to find our hotel – not a wise choice in the heat of the day! We found our hotel and while checking in met an American woman working there. After talking to her a bit we found out she was from Moorhead, MN and Josh had gone to college and took classes with her brother. One of those “small world” moments. We decided since it was too hot to explore the old ruins, that we would go for a refreshing swim.

         HAHA! The bathroom signs at the hotel!


 
 Below: A video of the happy children who followed us around this site excitedly repeating "hello!"

           

 Later, after the heat of the day(so we thought), we rented bikes and rode to the old city. The old historic city of Sukhothai was the first capital city of Thailand in the 13^th century; it remained the capital for over 100 years until it’s fall. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We rode and explored the ancient ruins and despite our efforts it was HOT! The ruins were very neat to explore – interesting structures and Wats; different poses of Buddha figures everywhere! It was quite the site to see. Many of the Wats and buildings were surrounded by a moat. We finished our day in the central part of the old city with a beautiful sunset among the ruins.

On our sweet bikes!

Buddha's Footprint

After a delicious supper at the hotel.

Wat Chang Lom (Chang = elephant, Lom=around).
36 elephants surround the base of this wat.

The following morning we arose early, again in attempt to avoid the heat. At breakfast we observed the food offering to local monks – then it was off on the bikes to the old city again. This time we traveled to the far part of the old city. It was here where we climbed the many stone steps to Wat Saphan Hin, after the sweaty climb we were rewarded with a beautiful view! We continued to ride and visit various ruins. Then back to the hotel for some pool time!!! So nice to relax with good friends and the sun! :)

Wat Saphan Hin

Stone steps - this isn't even halfway up!

View on top of hill of Wat Saphan Hin

After some lunch, the time had come, back to Bangkok we go. We thought we had looked the bus schedule closely early on Saturday when we arrived – but at 2am, slightly incoherent state, we didn’t read the details. The next bus back wasn’t until 5pm, with no choice we waited  for 2.5 hours for our bus in the heat. It was during this time a smiling monk walked up to Josh and shook his hand and sat next to me and attempted to interact, however this was very difficult because of the huge language barrier –so we just smiled back and forth. We also met a lady who gave us travel advice. Finally we got on the 1^st class bus (air, bathroom, free snacks and drinks), only choice,  back to Bangkok. We arrived home around midnight. This concluded out excellent trip to Sukhothai!!

The four weekend explorers!