Ayutthaya and Sukhothai

This week, the week beginning Monday January 9^th Rob and I began handing out midterms to our 4^th, 5^th, and 6^th graders. We are giving them dialogues that they had to act out in front of the class, and they have to memorize it or will lose a few points if they do not. In that regard it was a pretty relaxing week as all we had to do with the older kids was watch them and help transliterate words from English into Thai. The younger kids we are giving two more weeks to get down their material before we begin handing out midterms. On Friday was Student Day, which is a day throughout Thailand that celebrates students. The students don't have any class this day, except first period, and they get to hangout outside, which is basically a huge carnival—minus any animals. A lot of the students perform dances on stage and it is an overall happy go lucky day. I left school a couple of hours early, around 1:30 since I didn't have any teaching, and shortly after I was heading into Bangkok to see some friends I hadn't laid eyes on in quite some time.

Ross Tan, a friend from the Co-Ops in Berkeley was visiting from China, and he had just landed the night before in Bangkok. Since I had a three day weekend, thanks to teacher day on Monday, I was going to head up North to Ayutthaya and Sukhothai, both ancient capitals in Bangkok. I was going in order to finish up my northern travels as those were the last two areas in Northern Thailand I hadn't been that I wanted to see. Once I got into downtown Bangkok I went to Lub D, as that was the hostel I recommended that Ross stay at, and met up with him there. Amaris Montes, another friend from the Co-Ops, had a week earlier arrived in Bangkok for her semester of studying abroad so we decided we would all meet up a while later in order to go out for dinner. While we were waiting I showed Ross MBK, and we had a beer with some other travelers at Lub D. We met a girl from Germany named Sonya who had just began her 2.5 month travels in Southeast Asia, and she asked if she could join us the following morning on our way up North. We both agreed and it was actually good for Ross since I told him he should continue on to Chiang Mai after we separated since Sekhuthai was already 2/3rds of the way there, and if Sonya went he would then have someone to travel around with in Chiang Mai and Pai. We agreed to meet at 9 AM the next morning to depart.

After that Ross and I went to the Sky Train to pick up Amaris. When we found her, which took a minute, it turned out Justina, another friend from the Co-Ops, is also studying abroad in Thailand and came along with Amaris to dinner—there was also another girl they had met in Thailand who goes to UCSC, but her name escapes me right now. After we all met up we decided to go and get some India food as the area we were in, Silom, is famous for it. The food was good and it was nice to catch up with some friends I hadn't seen in well over half a year—they were the first people from Berkeley I had seen since leaving on my trips over seven months ago. After dinner we decided to go back and have another beer at the hostel. After an hour or so the girls left as they were waking up first thing in the morning to head down to Koh Samet. After that Ross, and I went to my favorite place in the world Khao San Road—and enter the sarcasm. As mentioned in previous posts Khao San is really not my favorite place in the world, but everyone has to view it before leaving Bangkok. We went there with two other dudes who had just started travelling and hung out there for a bit. For a while Ross and I were trying to guess peoples nationalities in a bar. After that I showed him a street that is one street over and much more to my liking—and his as well. After that we headed back to the hostel, and I decided since it was already so late I would crash there for the night.

The next morning we woke up and met in the lobby of the hostel. Ross and I wanted to get some breakfast so we went off really quick and found somewhere to eat. Once we got back Ross had to find a bank to withdraw some money he had sent from Australia, which was difficult to do as most banks are closed on Saturdays. After we found it Sonya, Ross, and I hopped into a taxi and headed to the Mo Chit Bus Terminal. It took a while to get there, but was still cheaper with three people in a taxi than each paying public transit costs individually. Once we got to the bus terminal I asked to see where the bus was and then we went to get a quick lunch. By the time we got on the bus it was already half past noon, meaning we were running a bit late, but fortunately the bus ride to Ayutthaya is only 2.5 hours. Once we reached Ayutthaya we quickly checked into a guesthouse and then rented bikes to go look around some of the ruins. It was nice to finally get back on a bike and seeing the Ayutthaya ruins was nice, although they are nowhere near the splendor of either Bagan or Angkor. The entrance fees were free to all the different ruins, since Ayutthaya had been one of the worse flooded areas so they were trying to bring back tourists. After riding around on the bikes for a few hours and hiking around some of the ruins we went for a bike ride through the city. We went through some residential areas, over some creaky wooden bridges, and also through a few modern temples before heading back to the guesthouse. Once outside of the ruins area of Ayutthaya you could really see the destruction the flooding caused. There were high watermarks on all the buildings—higher than a human head. There is also unfortunately a lot of trash all over that the flooding moved around. Once we got back to the guesthouse we went out for dinner to this Thai Indian food restaurant. The food was okay, but the company was good. After that we headed back to the guesthouse and went to bed.

The next day we woke up first thing in the morning in order to get on a bus to Sukhothai. We got dressed quickly and rented a song tao to take us to the bus station. We made it there with about 20 minutes to spare and all hopped on the bus together. Once we were on, the bus was too full and the bus driver was demanding that Sonya and Ross get off and instead hop on the next bus. I asked him why and told him that we all bought are tickets together and none of us could understand why he was separating us. It turns out that although we bought our tickets together the cashier put us on two different buses. After this Sonya and Ross got off, and had to wait for an hour while I rode on the Sukhothai. Once I arrived in Sukhothai I was the one waiting as I had to wait at the bus station for them to arrive. After everyone got there we took a song tao into the new part of town in order to find a hostel—I also made sure to book my bus for 5 40 the next evening in order to guarantee I could get back in time for school on Tuesday. Once we checked in we decided to go look around the new part of town as it was already too late to go to the old historic part outside of town. While walking around we found a playground that we all played in for a while, and then Sonya bought a Pikachu doll to attach to her purse from a vendor sitting outside of the park. After that we found a cool outdoor market that we looked around a bit, and then began to head back. On our way back there was a huge event that Chevy was putting on so we decided to go wonder around in it. It was funny as there were rock climbing walls, video games, a huge stage, plenty of Chevy cars, and not a lack of pretty Thai girls advertising for the company. I did the rock climbing wall or better I attempted to do it, but didn't finish the last bit of it. We walked around and looked at some of the cars while drinking coconuts, and then after we were done they were handing out free Papaya Salad so we had a free Thai dinner that was given to us by Chevy. Crazy!

Once we were done there we went back to the guesthouse, and I checked my emails and other accounts for a bit. After, we all went to a bar for an hour and had some smoothies—mine was banana. Once we finished we went back and headed to bed as we were going to wake up first thing in the morning to go to the old town.

When the morning came around we all woke up, packed our bags, and headed for the old part of town. Once we arrived we rented bicycles to ride around the town and bought an entrance pass. Once inside I have to admit that the ancient city of Sukhothai is much better preserved and a more peaceful environment than that of Ayutthaya. Although Sukhothai was historically smaller than Ayutthaya it was not destroyed like Ayutthaya was when the Burmese invaded hundreds of years ago. The ruins of Ayutthaya are also right in the middle of the city, which is not the case for Sukhothai which makes it a lot more peaceful. We rode around for a few hours and looked at the different monuments. After a few hours I became pretty reckless with my bike and was riding it off the road in the trees and grass and I popped a tire. I then had to walk my bike back and exchange it for another, which the people didn't mind and I imagine it happens quite frequently. After that we headed to lunch, and then hopped on our bikes and headed back to the ruins. We had to ride a bit to get to some new ruins and once we got there we realized it was another hundred baht for the new section. At first I wasn't going to pay but then I decided I would only be here once and that it was only three dollars. Ross also decided to pay, but Sonya was over temples by this point, and wasn't feeling well so she decided she would head back to one of the ruins closer to the bike shop and would read. I am glad I decided to pay as this new area was even more quiet then the main part of the old city. There wasn't much to see beyond this Buddha that was a tough short hike up a steep hill, where you could see all of the valley below. It was honestly quite beautiful up there. The real reason why it was worth while was the environment made me feel like home. It was the same dry heat, the trees were green, with browning undergrowth, just like the hills in the bay area. I was also riding a bike through it which made me slightly nostalgic for home. After seven months I can't say I miss home, but I definitely miss certain aspects of it. I miss the open mentality of the bay area, I miss the environment of the bay area and its smells. I miss my family and my bicycle, and of course a little one named Kate. Then at the same time I feel like I am finally getting this travelling thing down, and am also finally being able to appreciate traveling now that the original awe of it has worn off. This has began causing me some anxiety over the last two months. The missing of certain aspects of home, but also the strong desire and need to see more of this world that everyday I realize I have seen less of.

Anyways back to the day at hand, after the original Buddha on the hill the rest of the ruins in the area were in pretty poor condition and weren't much to look at. The bike ride alone though through the peaceful bay area like environment was enough of an award for the hundred baht price. Once we finished that Ross and I went and had some water. After that we headed back to find Sonya. Once we found her our watches showed we still had more than an hour to kill before we had to begin heading to the bus station. So we went and found some shade around one of the ancient of day monuments and fell asleep after a day full of hiking and bicycling. Once we awoke it was time to begin our trip back. We returned our bikes and I had some chicken and a banana smoothie while waiting for the bus to the bus station. At the bus station we had about an hour to kill so Ross and Sonya had some food, and then we talked about childhood cartoon characters ranging from Pokemon to Dragonball Z to Zelda. Our buses were set to depart ten minutes apart as theirs was going to Chiang Mai and mine to Bangkok. Theirs was late so we ended up departing at the same time. We said our goodbyes and hopped in our separate buses bound for separate cities. This is where I will leave off as this blog was written on the bus trip back to Bangkok.

Ayutthaya

Sukhothai

Chevy Promotion

Historic Sukhothai