Walking around Sukothai
Another day, another set of Thai ruins. This time we’re in Sukothai, a more popular – and more impressive – insight into Thai history and culture than Ayutthaya.
This morning we rode in the back of a pick-up truck for 12km from where we’re staying (‘New Sukothai’) to where the ruins are (‘Old Sukothai’, interestingly enough) and walked around for about three hours. One of the nice things about these ruins is that they are all laid out in the ‘Sukothai Historical Park’, so it’s really pleasant to walk around and between them without traffic around. Most people choose to rent bicycles for the day – in fact, I don’t think we saw a single other walker today – but we decided to go on foot to continue our ‘program’ of getting in walking mode ahead of next week’s trek. We still saw everything we wanted to see this way, so it worked out well.
Anyway, the ruins are older here than Ayutthaya, and better preserved for the most part. The more interesting things were: Wat Mahathat, the largest and best preserved complex with a series of rising stupas and several large Buddhas; Wat Trapang Ngoen, which was away from the main temples and even more peaceful, and had a lovely stucco Buddha statue in front of it; and Wat Sri Sawai, which was formerly a Hindu shrine and has Chiense influences in it, making for an unusual mixture that included some very impressive carvings of a four-headed ‘naga’, a serpent symbol of Buddhism.
I had a few shrimp in my soup last night, so the veggie streak came to a bit of a halt, but since I’m doing this for fitness rather than principle, I think I’m allowed to break it every now and then … I’ll attempt to start a new streak when we go to lunch in a little while. Meanwhile, Thai food has been described as the spiciest in the world, but we haven’t found it that way. Actually, the shrimp soup was the only moderately spicey meal I’ve had so far, and we’ve been eating at local markets/haunts every day except when we went to the excellent vegetarian restaurant Mai Kaidee in Bangkok (thanks for the tip JC!). Anyway, it seems to me that in Thailand spice is more of an optional thing (e.g. you get a spice packet to go with your pineapple), where as in Sri Lanka it’s essentially mandatory (e.g. the guy pours the spices on your pineapple before you can stop him!).
Clicking the photos should take you to larger ones, or you can see more Thailand shots here.
Tags: Asia, Buddha, ruins, Southeast Asia, Sukothai, Thailand, Travel, walking
Nick