The Sukhothai temples

We finally left Chiang mai, although we weren't ready to, and made our way to Sukhothai to carry on with our travels. Sukhothia is known as Thailand's first capital and holds the Khmer style temples that are one of the most visited ancient sites in thailand. The temple area (Sukhothai Historical park) is classed as the 'old town' and the new thriving area of the town, where we stayed is labelled as the 'new town'. We stayed at Banthai guesthouse and it seemed that all the guesthouses for foreigners are next to each other on this one strip by the river.



We got up early the next morning and hired a motorbike for the day. We rode to the old town, which was 12km from the new town. It didn't take long for us to look around, probably because we had a motorbike and the main temples are situated in the centre of the park. Like Angkor Wat, these temples were originally for Hindus and then later converted for Buddhists, so you can still see both styles. We've seen a lot of temples so we're starting to wizz by them and if they are nice to look at, then we will stay there a bit longer and take our pics, but if you're either Hindu or Buddhist and are interested in their history, then this place is worth visiting.






Danny hasn't slept for the past couple of days, so I dropped him off back at the guesthouse and I went and visited Si Satchanalai Historical park, which is 50km from the new town. It was nice ride up but there was nothing in between so if i got a puncture, i'd have been stuck in the heat! the Si Satchanalai park is based in the same style as the Sukhothai historical park but the LP book says that it is in a more peaceful surrounding and is almost untouched, so i thought I should check it out for myself. It was indeed very peaceful as I was the only foreigner there. the only other people i saw were a van full of thais doing theire sightseeing. I also preferred the temples here because there were a lot more bigger temples, instead of them being in the centre like Sukhothai Historical Park. I spent about an hour riding about and taking pics and found out that here is an excavation pit in the park, where they have found remains of bodies that date back from 2-4 BC, which is quite interesting and it seems that the royal family at the time were cremated and their ashes were scattered here.






I got back from my eventful afternoon and felt really cultured, until Isaw chris (Wakey), who we originally met in Vang Vieng, then again in Luang Prabang and Chiang mai, and he brought me back down with his dirty northern accent, and I felt common again lol. We spent the evening chilling, had dinner at Poo restaurant (it had to be done) and they served food on a plate with a smiley face-Love it!

Sukhothai photo link:
http://www3.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=4682186011/a=2264773011_2264773011/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/