Tues 5th Dec – Sukhothai
My first full day in a single location in Thailand. We were in Sukhothai, north of Bangkok. I took a lot of photos today, which I relate to the high quality of the day. Sukhothai region has 600k people living but it is villiage-like in comparison to Bangkok. The sky is less polluted too.
I am becoming accoustomed to living out of my yellow suitcase, and although I am comfortable with my choice to bring 10 books, I am glad it’s not more than that. Declan gave me a satchel to wear under my t-shirt, and this is where I keep my passport, a debit card and some larger pieces of cash. I carry this with me nearly all the time. Smaller cash and my credit card and phone live in zippy pockets on my pants.
The way Thailand moves itself is endlessly fascinating. When driving, there is a constant fluidity to what lane each vehicle is in, weaving in and out and around. This is due largely to the variation in vehicles: pedestrians nervously untethered from side walks, ricketedy push bikes, spluttering motorcycles, slovenly tuk tuks, food carts on wheels, trucks that more resemble moving palates, school buses with a crowd of young kids sitting cross legged on top, mini vans, huge tour buses. All have to compete to use a single lane road.
The morning was spent cycling around a historical park, home to many temples, some of which I took a photo of and are below. We then had a picnic lunch prepared by a lady that ran a cooking school and it was divine. The food was exactly how I imagined ‘authentic’ Thai food, and I could have sat there all day and feasted. Long eggplants were simmered to squishy, fleshy morsels. A chicken mussaman curry had a subtle sweetness and slow chili release. Fried chicken looked simple but was mouth wateringly seasoned, and adorned with a sticky chili sauce.
After spending all morning with the tour group, I was eager to do explore by myself. I opted out of going to the ceramic shop with the group and instead walked around town. When travelling on a guided tour, it’s such an easy experience. All the guests speak English, the hotel owners speak English, no one walks anywhere. Also, I am finding that many of the tour participants are afraid of the food and water and are comfortable eating in tourist restaurants. While this is all fine for half of the trip, I prefer to spend the other half a bit aimless and with no expectation of English or organised transport.
When I was just walking around town by myself people looked and smiled at me more. I found what looked like an empty coffee shop (it wasn’t a coffee shop). I spent five minutes in an endless loop trying to order a (sweet) iced coffee. The victory was when I showed a picture of coffee on my phone, which the owner then went and ordered for me down the road where the drinks stand ended up being and brought it back for me. The shop (more of a shack) had no other customers, and was populated by a grandmother, grandfather, mother, and seven-ish year old daughter. The grandmother, roused by the sight of a customer, jabbered to me in Thai for another five minutes presumably encouraging me to buy some chicken skewers (which they actually did sell). When she accepted I only wanted a drink, she settled back down at the front of the shop with her daughter, where they fanned themselves and talked to other stall holders for the next hour while I watched Sukhothai relax into the early afternoon. This is the happiest I will be for the entire trip.
In the evening, we went to a small night market. I am absolutely thrilled with the insanely delicious sweets. I don’t eat dinner, but I do eat much dessert.
This was a cracker of a day and made me feel like I was there.
The quality of the writing and photos is first class.
Cait, you need to make a career pivot to travel writing.
Not as well paying but a lot more fun.
I have far too many questions and thoughts about today.
The following is a brief summary:
The plants in the pond are ginormous. Looks amazing but how are the mozzies.
I’m going to buy a bell for the house for when mum wants to share something with me. I feel safe in writing this because I know mum has already read this blog post so will never see my witty comments.
I’m worried that the turtles and eels could be boiled alive in their little plastic bags. What happens if the vendors have a slow sales day.
Elephant monument was stunning. Would make such a fun jigsaw.
Did you try the worms and crickets?
The roti dish sounded excessively sweet
I am very glad you enjoyed this post, it did take me a long time to write on my phone! It really was a perfect day in Thailand.
Pond was very pretty and the plants were cool. It’s very tempting to sit in them! Mozzies were present and we were told not to keep doors open. I have been fine with mozzies so far until the little cafe I am sitting in now in Cheing Mai. I think they are attracted to the fat American man yelling into his phone on speaker and scratching his back with his walking cane.
Whoops so many questions, I thought I was done and pressed enter to early.
The bell would make a great addition to any tense workplace.
The turtles and eels live a futile existence and are meet pawns in a larger futile existence of human kind.
The elephant sculptures everywhere make me very happy.
I did have both the worm and cricket. I was particularly excited to try the cricket, as it feels like a rite of passage in Asia.
The roti dish was extremely sweet. I would eat it every day if i could.
We all know where that bell will end up. This is hard work Cait. Happy to read your posts but now apparently I have to go back and check the posts. Have a good day. Think of us tomorrow. We are off to Port Stephens xx
that comment about the bell is the sort of micro (sometimes macro) aggression i deal with most days in the office from an unspecified person.
if the criteria for mozzie bites is being fat then i am never going to asia. i have enough trouble here.
sorry for spelling mistakes as spellcheck works when i am using the ipad but not on my tower – i never understand technology
cait, if you go back and comment on old comments is there an easy way for me to find out apart from srolling through all the days searching them out?
Re old comments, I have repeatedly requested this functionality from blog master Dec, albeit it is met with a stony ‘no’. Some micro aggression of it’s own.