Wat's up in Sukhothai

Wow what a place! Glad I'm taking notes as there is a lot to remember on this trip as we've been seeing and doing so much. Quite worthy of the irritating bus trip! To get around we rented scooter # 7. Drove 30 km to the historical park and rented bicycles to tour around the main section. Amazing structures with some restored and others in their deteriorated state. Seven hundred years may do that. Beautiful sites however, temples, Buddhas and wats. Took so many photos the camera overheated as well as us peddling throughout the park. Can you still say "kodak moments" in our digital world? Went to see the buddha footprint and there we bought fish food to feed the massive school of frenzied catfish. It was somewhat gross to watch the fish swim on top of each other during snack time. We did this on the river in Bangkok, but with bread. Later went out for dinner at a Fodor's and Lonely Planet's recommended place and got schtupped. The guide books both suggested the freshwater river fish. A table of Thais beside us had fish and it looked big and yummy. We were served little tiny minnow sized fish, bones and all. We asked our server and she just nodded that that's what we ordered. A nice atmosphere full of antiques, but will not be going back there for the sardines. When traveling we find that these are the moments we get to laugh and joke about. After dinner we wandered over to a bar called Terrace and Trees where live music was playing. Beside us was a table full of Asians with one man having all the fun. Soon he was playing along with a tambourine and gave one to Steve, a few songs later he had Steve dancing. It was so funny all of us were laughing as well entertained. A humorous finale to the evening. Day two in Sukhothai and back to check out two other sections in the historical park. Rented scooter #8 and used it to get around the large park and surrounding areas. It is 70 kms in size. Rode around and parked to hike up to some of the more interesting wats and chedis. The monks built stone pathways to ease the journey. Both days we've seen large groups of school kids touring, waving excitedly and practicing their good mornings on us. We had one group ask if we could be in a picture with them and visa versa. Oh well more photo ops! Sukhothai
had a great vibe with a rural Thai flavour and very few tourists. When checking out of our hotel the manager treated us to the most pimped up Tuk Tuk in the city for the trip to the bus station. It had plenty of chrome with a booming sound system, cushy seats and powered by a chopper up front. Next stop, back to Chiang Mai for the Loi Krathong festival. Scored a top floor quiet sunny room back at the M.D. Guesthouse for only 650 baht. Sometimes a smile goes a long way here. During the festival the Thais release lighted lanterns into the sky and small floats onto the river made of banana palms, flowers, candles, and incense. It represents freeing of the past and family blessings for the future. We've noticed that some travellers look so grumpy wearing scowls instead of smiles. Rosi and I noticed this in Panama and Costa Rica. Just don`t get it! As my Mom would say "pick your attitude". We chose the happy face, :).

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.