Air Travel

Sukhothai and Ayutthai:
March 26- March 29
On the trail South, we decided to travel via bus through two towns famous for their temple ruins. Both have a small-sprawl city feeling. These are Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai (about 5 hours South of Chiang Mai) and Ayutthai (5 hours further South and just 90 minutes north of downtown Bangkok).

Lots of temple ruins in both locations. Dominant are Khemer runins from 1300 through 1500 or so. These are brick temples that may once have been Hindu but are recognized as primarily Buddhist ruins (Buddhism and Hinduism took turns as the dominant religion, but Buddhism is the winner over the past 400 years or so).

Some comments:
+ it was quite fun biking around these temples as there were fewer toursists and less cattle-style tourism industry—compared with Chiang Mai and Angkor ruins in Cambodia. Specially in Sukhothai and the neighboring Si Satchanalai. Si Satchanalia was particularly pretty and quiet.
+ Music to dine by? John Tesh instrumentals or something arranged by someone who must be his lost Thai brother... That's what you'll hear in pretty much every breakfast room in the large Asian-style hotels. Smaltzy, psuedo-romantic synth music inspired by a percussion setting from an electronic keyboard circa mid-1980s. And its loud. Very loud. Unfortunately it's not unique to these two locations; perhaps it was just more noticeable to us here.
+ The sun was HOT. Biking around the temples needs to start early because you'll be suffering by 10:30am or so. Seems like the sun is perfectly above your head for hours around the midday sun. And temperatures were peaking around 38-40 Celcius-- 100 or more Fahrenheit. The evening doesn't really relent much, either. Patty and Ren agree—AC is a must.

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Sukhothai pictures:

The ruins were amazing. Several pictures below.

We biked around the ruins. The biking distances and terrain are easy. But man, that sun! Did we mention it was above 40 celsius?

In some locations you could interact with the old ruins (ie., climb them, dance around on them, perform rituals on them, etc.) The incline on the first picture was quite impressive.

The happy couple performing their own rituals:

Later, crossing the Indiana Jones bridge:

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Ayuthaia pictures:

One of the better know Buddha heads completely engulfed by a banyan tree.

Images of the king are prominent throughout Thailand. All indications are that Thai nationals really do like (love?) their king. He is rumored to have done a lot of good for the country. Here he is hanging out among the temples.