SEA06: After Ko Chang, or The Marathon

There are lots of things to explain after the last blog entry, and that is partly because we have not stayed much iddle since we left our resort on the beaches of paradise.

Let's start from the beginning: From the resort we took the usual truck-converted in bus to the ferry harbour (fortunatelly, this time we were sitting inside, and not perched outside, like when we arrived to the island). From there we took the ferry, obviously, and the coach to Bangkok (having to suffer two more horribly bad films). Once in Bangkok, the SkyTrain and a local bus - small, painted bright green, wooden floor, the driver of which didn't bother to stop completely or get closer to the pavement when we arrived to the Northern Bus Station in the middle of the traffic jam, so everyone had to, literally, jump off.

From there we took a night bus to Sukhothai, to where we arrived at about 5am. Sukhothai also known as Rising of Happiness, and it was the first capital of Siam in the 13th century, lasting for some 200 years (the Golden Age of Siam), and where the Thai script was developed. During which period the country expanded to cover approximately the actual territory of Thailand.

Without much sleep (but who needs to sleep much during holidays? ;-)) we start visiting the Historical Park, covering some 70sq Km. Obviously we didn't visit *everything*, but we had a fair sampling of the best sights (as it will be shown when we upload some pictures). Fortunately we could rent some bikes to do all the moving around.









Sukhothai lost its position as capital of Siam when the realm weas absorved by Ayutthaya, in a periode of the Siamese history in which the realm expanded well into present day Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar (Burma). This glorious period lasted for some 400 years, till the invasion by the Burmese.

So, again we hit the road to Phitsanulok, where we visit an excellent Ethnologic Museum (Sergeant Major Thawee Folk Museum) and a Buddha casting foundry. After that cultural break, we hit the rails this time to Ayutthaya, to arrive in the evening, settle for the night and to go to have dinner at a restaurant in a classic teak house in front of the Historical Park, with the view of the temples.

Today we have visited the main temples in the Historical Park in Ayutthaya, and tomorrow we leave again for Kanchanaburi....