sukhothai, thailand.

While this may have happened over a month ago, here is my account of our trip to the ancient Thai city of Sukhothai.  Better late than never, right?!  :]

On the morning of Friday February 18^th, we packed all of our worldy belongings up, loaded into vans and departed our beloved Mountain View guesthouse.

Before hitting the open road, we stopped at UNISERV (our new place of residence), a hostel on campus of Chiang Mai University and dropped off whatever we could not live without for the weekend.

The next three days would consist of a lot of driving and a lot of temple hopping.

Thankfully, I don’t get carsick easily and don’t even mind long car rides, rather I sort of enjoy them.

Time to simply relax, listen to music, sleep, etc.

The first Wat we visited on our tour of Sukhothai was called Pratartlampangluang.

It was very beautiful.  Although as soon as we emerged from the vans, we realized that it felt like Thailand had really turned up the heat and we were now inside of a very warm oven.

I kept having to remind myself that it is only February, just wait until we dive headfirst into April!

a Thai money tree.

shh...nap time! [note: the warm weather must have put the old man and the dog right to sleep]

After the first Wat, it was back into the vans for some more driving!

Also, I say vans because it wasn’t just the 11 of us on Asia Term visiting Sukhothai, we also brought along some of our teachers from CMU, which ended up being a fun addition.

our view from where we ate lunch.

an old television re-purposed as a fishy tank!

After more driving, we took a break for lunch.  We ate at a nice, open-air restaurant facing a big pond with lily pads and flowers galore!  We ate wonderful food, complimented by a great view.

Later in the afternoon we stopped at our first historical park, Sri Satchanalai (a World Heritage site since 1991), which was full of ancient ruins.  The park was definitely a neat place, especially knowing the various buildings were hundreds and hundreds of years old.  

what used to be elephant statues.

Buddha.

This park was also surrounded with trees full of bright, orange flowers which were in full bloom.  Apparently some refer to this certain tree as the flame of the forest; they definitely made the scenery even more beautiful.

the flame of the forest.

After sweating what was probably equivalent to our body weights’ in sweat, it was back to the vans to cool off and we were on our way to our hotel for the night.

That evening was pretty low-key; we all cooled off in the pool for a bit, ate a great buffet dinner (they actually had POTATOES!  It was absolutely wonderful :D) and played a game of hearts before bed.

The next morning we did a bike tour of the actual city of Sukhothai, which ended up being a lot of fun.

We started our day early, before it got too incredibly hot.

me on my pretty pink bike!

an action shot.

The first place we biked to was a temple called Wat Sri Chum, and it was without a doubt my favorite Wat so far on this trip.

While it may not have housed any Buddha statues in glimmering gold, something about this Buddha image really set it apart.

Approaching the Buddha image is incredible because his head and eyes are peering out at onlookers between two large, stone walls.

a smaller Buddha image next door to the large one.

The Buddha looks so peaceful, and it is fascinating to wonder about what it must have been like (Thailand, the people, etc.) whenever this statue was originally constructed.

We were also informed that people used to be allowed to climb up and explore this humongous Buddha, but unfortunately that is no longer the case.

One other aspect which makes this Buddha so beautiful is that his right hand, which is in the Subduing Mara pose, is painted gold.  It is truly stunning.

Seeing this Buddha was even more of a treat, because I had just sent off a postcard stateside with a beautiful (and large) gold Buddha hand with flowers besides it, and here I was seeing this statue in real life!  It was a wonderful, unexpected surprise.

After Wat Sri Chum, and a quick break for ice cream (it was already warming up!), we hopped back on our bicycles and pedaled to the Sukhothai Historical Park (also a World Heritage site since 1991).

The bikes were especially nice as it was very hot in Sukhothai, and only got hotter as the day progressed.

At one point, I was literally pedaling myself in circles (as others stopped to take pictures of a political statue) just to create some air flow.  It was pretty sad to think that this is only February…I cannot imagine the treat we will be in for come APRIL!  :O haha.

Anyways, Sukhothai Historical Park was simply beautiful.  The ruins were incredible, and there were so many of them!  Being on bike was a smart way to get around here, as there was so much to see, and it provided a nice breeze as well as quick transportation to and from.

After the historical park, we all met back up at the bike shop, turned in our bikes, and departed for the hotel.

We all showered off (which felt SO nice!) and ate lunch before checking out and leaving to go to Phitsanulok.

On the way, we stopped at a Thai Folk Museum, which housed various objects and artifacts found and used in the traditional Thai way of life.

a friendly greeter at the Thai Folk Museum.  :]

The museum was full of fascinating objects, and it was very nice to be out of the sun and heat for a little bit.

After the folk museum, we checked into our new hotel and had some free time before dinner.

Erin and I opted for a much needed nap, and some downtime in the A/C accompanied by some bad English television.  Our hotel in Phitsanulok, called Topland, was extremely nice.  The beds were super comfortable as well.  :]

That evening we all gathered for a group dinner at the Flying Vegetables Restaurant.

As the name might imply, there actually are f-l-y-i-n-g vegetables there.

How it works is sometime during your meal, people gather around this old, tall metal trailer-like thing which now acts as an elevated stage.  There is an expert chef stationed below at his outside kitchen station where he whips up some buttery stir-fry morning glory (a vegetable, which is basically leafy greens).  Usually a crowd gathers below, and when there are enough people around, some of the restaurant workers start banging on drums, clapping, etc.  It is a lot of fun to watch.  Once the vegetables are cooked, the chef signals with a huge flame, turns around (so his back is facing the person catching) and thrusts the morning glory from his frying pan into the lid of a trashcan (hopefully).

Everyone we watched did wonderful, and didn’t drop a single bite.

Luckily, three of us – Erin, Aaron, and I – were given the opportunity to actually catch some of the vegetables ourselves!

In order to prepare you for the art of vegetable catching, they arm you with a large, slippery apron and a metal trash can lid (which I am sure was properly sanitized :] ).

I had the honor of going first and was lucky enough to receive a tricky throw, an over the shoulder number, which I expertly caught in my trashcan lid ;]

I was so nervous standing up there, not knowing whether I would be actually catch them or not!  Thankfully, I succeeded and as a reward, they present your table with the flying morning glory you just caught.  This was a very unique and enjoyable experience; I am very glad I was able to be a part of it.

right after the big catch!

my proud trophy!

The next day, Sunday, we had a delicious buffet breakfast at Topland and were off on our way back to Chiang Mai.

Our first stop was at Wat Yai.

As soon as we started walking around we saw three trucks pull up with young men in the back surrounded by their families, flowers, and colorful umbrellas – they were in the process of going through the official ceremony to become a monk!

young men in the process of becoming official monks.

I had not seen this before, and even though we only caught a glimpse, it was still pretty exciting.

Wat Yai is regarded by some as being the most exquisite temple in all of Thailand due to its large, gold Buddha.  I’m not sure whether I would go that far, but it was definitely nicely decorated (very ornate), and was overflowing with excited visitors.

a whole row of Buddhas.

the infamous main, gold Buddha.

another Thai money (Baht) tree.

There were more colorful money trees inside, which are always fun to look at.

Although, my favorite part of this Wat was having our fortunes told!  There is a little wooden cup which gets passed around and it has all of these wooden sticks inside, each with a different number written on it.  To get your fortune told, you are supposed to shake the wooden cup until only one wooden stick falls out and whichever number is on it is the fortune you go and get.  They have a large wooden box divided into smaller boxes, one for each number and corresponding fortune.

Also, if you shake the wooden cup and more than one stick falls out at the same time, you are supposed to put them all back in and try again.

On my first try, one wooden stick fell and it was #1.

all of the various fortunes!

Incredibly, I lucked out and got a rather good fortune!  It is written in Thai, but one of the teachers on the trip with us was busy translating everyone’s fortune, and she told me it was a very good fortune which said I would be happy, find a good partner, would get any wish I hoped to come true, and would get well should I fall ill.

I was elated to get this fortune, because apparently if you draw a bad fortune, you are supposed to put it back in its box and try again.  Guess you don’t want to take the bad fortune with you and have something more come of it!

After our stop at Wat Yai, we drove for a while and stopped for lunch – Thailand style, at a roadside stand.  I (again) lucked out and got one of two remaining chicken and rice dishes.

my yummy iced Ovaltine.

Afterwards, I enjoyed a delicious iced Ovaltine, another trademark of Thailand (along with iced Milos), or at least in my experience :]

That afternoon, we stopped at our last Wat of the Coe-CMU Trip to Sukhothai & Phitsanulok 2011, Wat Pratat Haripoonchai in Lampoon.   

Buddha footprints!  :D

Thankfully it was well into late afternoon and was already cooling off.

This Wat was beautiful, like all the others, and surprisingly had a ton of Buddha images! (haha just kidding) But in all seriousness, the Wat was quite pretty and provided many exceptional photo opportunities. 

Also, right across the street was the “O-TOP bridge.”  O-TOP is an organization in Thailand which allows villages to specialize in a certain handicraft, food item, etc. in which to produce and opportunities to get their products out to the public and sold for a fair amount.

So pretty much if you are buying an O-TOP scarf, shoes, etc. you know your money is not only going to procure an attractive souvenir, but it is also going to a good cause.

There are different places where O-TOP products are available, and this bridge just happens to be one such place, as it houses all O-TOP sellers.  I bought a nice pair of purple fisherman pants (which are quite popular here, not to mention breezy) and a couple of gifts for people back home.

After our last stop, we only had about a half an hour before we were back in the lovely Chiang Mai.

We officially switched from our beloved guesthouse to a hostel that night, and the change was rough on most of us as we were pretty used to our previous accommodations and surroundings.  Eventually though, we adjusted and everything was just fine living in a new part of town, off of Nimmanhaemin Street.