Chiang Mai to Sukhothai

Today's my down day poolside. I've only read a bit of my novel "Shanghai Girls" that Sydney gave me as we've been quite busy. We also spend a bit of time researching what to do, when to do it, and how to get there. Meanwhile Steve's rented scooter # 3 and is tripping around on a golf mission. After leaving Chiang Mai he found a quaint little driving range/golf course. Due to a communication glitch Steve ended up buying a 7 rack package without any idea how many balls in a rack. After whacking 280 balls he felt driven. Luckily there was an auto loading non motorized machine that teed the balls with a stomp pad. Later that evening we cruised around town and checked out the locals preparing for the next festival. They were assembling over sized lanterns made of silk, wire, electric lighting, and plenty of glue sticks. There were beautifully shaped elephants, clowns, and dragons to name a few. We then made our way to the North Gate Jazz Co op and what a pleasant surprise to hear some incredibly talented musicians. This city has a few music schools and judging by what we heard they must have great programs. Super talented guys on percussion, bass, guitar, keyboard, saxiphone, and vocals. The only sad part of the evening was when we went to drive home our scooter had a flat tire. I had to walk while Steve kinda rode/walked the bike home. In the a.m. it was nice to have the rental shop say ooops sorry, no charge. The following morning it was off to Thai cooking school. There were 5 others in our class, 2 germs, one dry brit, and a shy newly wed couple from Dubai (arranged marriage with dowry). I guessed their new nuptials as I noticed her freshly tattooed hands. Our day started with the instructor taking us to the nearby market where we were introduced to local fruits, veggies, herbs, and spices. I was surprised to find out how many varieties of eggplants, ginger, etc... After loading up our baskets with goodies it was back to school to start cooking. Steve and I decided to choose different dishes to maximize our learning experience. We chopped, sliced, peeled, crushed, and even used a mortar and pestle for pastes (no slapchop zone). Cool! We whipped up Spicy Tom Yum, Papaya salad, Green Curry with chicken, fried banana, sticky rice with mango, penagne curry and more. We ate all day, cooking 6 different dishes each! Arroy muk muk (very good)!. No need for dinner that night! The next day we were off to Sukhothai. It's about a six hour bus ride to this historic city (13'th century). The bus was fully loaded with tourists and Thais alike, without a fire this time. The bus driver and his staff of three crank up the volume for their movies and music. I have an ear situation and was going crazy with it being so loud. We listened to two movies in Thai and then then out came the karaoke music. Thank God no one was singing! No one was enjoying the excessively loud volume and they ignored polite requests to lower it. Well if you know me enough is enough, I went to turn the volume down on the TV. No luck, then I found the remote and took it down a notch myself. Brutal! It took all I had to not go F-ing nuts. How rude of them, maybe they thought the same of me. I Did Not Care!!!! One thing we have found is the bus assistants can be asses and tend to be some of the rudest people in Thailand. Perhaps they should take lessons from the tuk tuk drivers. AHHHHH finally off the bus. We accepted the first offer for a place to stay from a promo guy at the bus station. It turned out to be a decent place with aircon, hot water, and wifi at a good price ($12.00 per night), we were in like flint. Turned out to be ok with only two complaints, one being the busted toilet seat and the other was a crapola TV package with only 3 english speaking bible thumping religious channels. No worries however, we came for the ruins. This is a very small conservative town that closes up at 11:00 pm. Not many tourists here and most people wear more than spaghetti straps and short skirts. They have alcohol free celebrations and no smoking in many of the parks. Somewhat like dry grad in Canada eh! Good to go as we have a big day ahead, ahhhhh the historical park and ruins await.