Sukhothai was the first capital of the Kingdom of Siam, then Ayuthaya, and finally Bangkok. We rode bikes around the temples, they were different from the previous one, we saw sculptures of walking Buddhas. I was relieved that Sukhothai was much smaller.  There wasn’t as much Khmer Temples influence, there weren’t stupas. The stupas represent the top of the hat of the Buddha. The Buddha’s had a flame on top of their head. There was a tiny elephant temple that had elephants all around it. There were lots of trees with all mangled roots all around the trunk.

Sukhothai fût la première capitale du royaume du Siam. Nous l’avons visité en bicyclette, il faisait moins chaud qu’à Ayuthaya et c’était bien plus petit, j’ai beaucoup plus apprécié. Les temples étaient légèrement différent, il y avait notamment un Buddha qui marchait. Mis à part un temple il n’y avait pas trop d’influence Khmer (du Cambodge). Les Buddhas ici avaient une flamme au dessus de leurs têtes. J’ai bien aimé le temple avec les éléphants tout autour.

We ate at a restaurant that was mostly a rip off I had paprika pork with fried rice. The pork had no paprika and it was served with plain rice. At the market they had catfish squirming around in there bucket. We bought some snacks from different vendors, little sausage with lemongrass, Thai pancakes and rotee. Thailand has these food markets in every towns.

Nous avons mangé dans l’enceinte des temples, mais ce n’était pas bon, j’avais commandé du porc sauté avec du paprika, il n’y a pas eu de paprika dedans et du riz mal cuit. Donc après nous avons fait un tour au marché et là nous avons trouvé de bonnes choses, comme des petites saucisses à la citronnelle ou des petites crêpes Thai. Dans toutes les villes, il y a de très bons marchés.

My favorite temple was Sri Chum Wat, the Buddha is seating, its 15m high, looking at you and his hand was gold. When you arrive at a distance it looks like it has bulging eyes. But it was just its eyelids, overtime they got damaged with the weather when the temple lost its roof. Its hand was covered in gold leaf which was pretty amazing, this temple had a nice peaceful atmosphere. They were preparing lanterns and a show for the light festival. We returned from our bike ride and rested in our small bungalow. The food we ate that night was very good I had a minced pork omelet.

Mon temple préféré de tout Sukhothai était Sri Chum Wat. Quand on arrive, on découvre un Buddha de 15m entre une fente, j’avais l’impression qu’il me regardait mais en fait ce sont ses paupières qui ont été endommagées par les intempéries depuis que le toit n’est plus sur le temple. Il est assis et regarde vers le bas, une de ses mains est couleur or car les croyants lui appliquent des petits carrés d’or et avec le temps ça fait un dégradé. C’était un endroit très serein et un peu magique. Sur l’enceinte des temples ils commençaient à préparer pour le festival des lanternes. Après toute cette escapade j’étais content de retourner me reposer dans le bungalow. 

Next morning it was pouring, we took our breakfast. When we returned to our bungalows we got our rain jackets and waited for a tuk tuk. Our ride on the Tuk Tuk was very interesting, we were getting wet and we were on top of each others, my mom had the umbrella in front of us trying to protect us, it didn’t work that well, I had to change and she did as well because the 2 of us were soaked!! We arrived at the bus station in Old Sukhothai and we were told it was the wrong one. We took a small bus to the right station then hopped on the bus for 6H on our way to Chiang Mai. I still find it strange that the busses have a huge T.Vs but they don’t use them.

Le lendemain matin, il pleuvait comme vache qui pisse. Ce n’était pas facile pour prendre le bus, maman et moi ont été trempés dans le tuk tuk. Après s’être changé, nous avons du repartir car nous n’étions pas à la bonne station de bus. Nous sommes arrivés pour prendre le bus sans problème, direction Chiang Mai.