What wat's what?

The day after we arrived in Sukothai we woke up to a much cooler, clearer day than we expected. This actually made it possible for us to rent bicycles to ride around the historical park. Otherwise we were contemplating renting motorbikes for touring the park. Perhaps not as nostalgic as push bikes, but then again there's nothing nostalgic about heat stroke. I'm really glad that it did cool down as riding around on crappy bicycles really added to the ambience of the experience. Absolutely lovely.

The ruins are all really well preserverd and the park is beautiful landscaped and taken care of. It's quite a large area and you definitely wouldn't be able to walk and have time to see everything. You can see most of the big ruins in one day. I'm sure we missed a few of the smaller ones but after a few hours of looking at ruins of wats (temples) in the hot sun, we were all pretty much ready for a cold shower and a nap.

The only thing that can be a bit difficult is that there's not too much information in English and I can see how it would be nice to have a tour guide along who can fill you in on it a bit. Luckily we had our own tour guide, my partner Mike, who has studied Thai history and religion exstensively as part of his PhD and had been to Sukhothai a few times before. My favourite spot was Wat Si Chum, which was outside of the city walls. It was just one of those amazing spots that has an awesome energy and peace to it. Plus a great spot for photos.

One thing we did miss that I was disappointed about was the historical museum at the entrance to the park. It is supposed to be really good and actually very informative. Unfortunately it closed at like 4pm and we didn't realise this so missed out on it. I think it would have definitely added to the experience and helped me to learn more about Thai history and culture.

I would definitely recommend hitting Sukhothai if you can. It's a nice change from the usual  in Thailand and a chance to see some of the country's ancient history. It would be quite easy to work it into a trip between Chiang Mai and Bangkok as it's right in the middle. You could do this easily by bus. For the hardy you could even make it a side trip from Chiang Mai and rent motorbikes or a car and drive down. Though be warned that driving in Thailand is not for the faint of heart. Though I suppose you could say that about a lot of things in Thailand!