January 13, 2018

January 13, 2018

Today we spent the day driving north up the broad Chao Phraya River valley, past endless rice paddies. Thailand used to be the largest rice exporter until India recently surpassed them. About halfway on our journey we see some isolated peaks jutting out prominently from the flat terrain. Monkeys live in them and descend down when food is scarce. A tourist business has developed at the temple selling snacks to feed then. Our guide buys some nuts and the monkeys swarm her. There are hundreds. Our group buys some puff balls instead. Apparently they aren’t as tasty and it takes some coaxing to get them to take the puffballs from our hands.

We have a lunch break at the food court of a shopping mall, and then continue driving, reaching Sukhothai in the late afternoon.

Sukhothai was the first capital of the Thai people. It used to be a military outpost of the Khmer (Angkor) Empire. In 1238, a local prince achieved independence. Sukhothai means “dawn of happiness”. This regime was short-lived, slowly losing authority to Ayutthaya to the south, Sukhothai was abandoned awaiting rediscovery. Despite being older it is in better condition than Ayutthaya. Sukhothai Historical Park became a World Heritage site in 1991.

Our first stop is Wat Si Chum on the outskirts of the city. This small temple has a building with an enormous seated Buddha. Some of the gold leaf still remains on the hand near the ground.

Sukhothai is surrounded by a moat and an earthen berm. To save time we hired Tuk Tuk motorcycle taxis to whisk us around the small city. We next stop at Wat Si Sawai, one of the oldest temples. This one has three corncob-shaped prangs with some very nice bas-relief sculpture gracing the largest tower.

We made a quick photo stop at Wat Sa Si. This small temple has a bell shaped stupa, a seated Buddha, and a small colonnade. Unfortunately the sun is in the wrong direction for good photography.

Our last stop is the main royal temple of Wat Mahathat. This one is a big sprawling compound chocked full of stone structures and several big Buddhas. Unfortunately they are all facing east making photos poor at sunset. We needed to come here in the morning.

Finished with touring we head to our nearby hotel. I wish we were staying longer as it looks like an old rustic resort. Our room, with a creaking wooden floor, could have been the bedroom of some long forgotten Thai royal.