Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Sukhothai
So I left Laos and took a bus to Khon Kaen in order to change to a bus to Sukhothai. The journey to suhothai was an arduous one. First, they only had a night bus to Sukhothai, which meant I had to wait in Khon Kaen for hours. Then, they said maybe I should take to Phitsanulok and change to Sukhothai because of the high frequency of buses.
So I took the bus to Phitsanulok and it was a loooooooooooooooong journey around the mountainous area. Beautiful view, but a fucking 6 hour ride going round and round the road bends.
When I finally did reach Phitsanulok, I boarded the bus to Sukhothai and met another travller, Tegra from Seattle. So I had some company for the rest of the 1 hr journey. When we got to Sukhothai's bus terminal, we parted ways and said we'll probably run into each other tomorrow at the ruins.
And we did! I was coming out of a temple when I thought she looked familiar. So we ended up exploring the place together, and even avoided paying 100baht for Wat Phra Ling by sneaking in from the back.
For lunch we had pad thai at a little cafe just by the park. The owner's little girl, 7 yrs old, came up to us and handed us dominos. Me, being without a childhood, didn't know how to play and had to let a little kid teach me. This little kid was really hyper, i suspect A.D.D. But definitely funny, she could so grow up to be a comedian or an actress.
We stayed in the park after dark, hoping to see the ancient wats under different lighting. We waited and waited, enchanging info about Seattle and Singapore, and eventually we were the only two left in the huge park and the stray dogs started roaming around us. We freaked out and packed up our stuff and had to climb over the huge gate to escape.
The early morning and the evening are really cold. You hafta wear a jacket and even snowcaps or gloves.
I eventually convinced Tegra to join me in Nan. So now I have a travellin buddy!