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The ancient city of Sukhothai (Thailand)Dec 12, 2008
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Water lillies
Vix cycling the outskirts of old Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat
Our previous day’s journey was well rewarded in that we spent a wonderful day cycling around and inside the ancient city of Sukhothai (which translates as ‘Rising of Happiness’). As I, Alan, am beating Vix 7-3 in the current Scrabble series, this is most apt).
We were very keen to visit this World Heritage Site (since 1991) as we had previously visited Angkor Wat and Ayuthaya which immediately respectively preceeded and succeeded this ancient Kingdom as the epicentre of power in what is now known as South East Asia.
The general layout of these former Royal Kingdoms is very similar although this City had a very impressive walled and double-moated boundary. Although impressive in scale, the physical remains of the buildings was less well-preserved than Angkor. This appears to be because of the method of construction in that the city was built not from stone but from laterite blocks. (This material comprises iron, aluminium and silicon oxides and, when extracted from underground, becomes hardened when exposed to air.) Plaster/stucco was applied on the surfaces with elaborate and intricate carvings, few of which remain to this day. Nonetheless, one could picture the wonderful structures and proportionality of this city with beautiful man-made lakes and canals.
To get a sense of the site, we cycled five kilometres outside the city wall, where the reservoir that fed this city, still exists. The agriculture around this area is extremely varied and fertile, including sugar cane, rice, tapioca, wheat, fruit etc.
The sun baked and so did we. At the end of the day, after a delicious meal at the Poo Restaurant, we decided to make Sunday a day of rest and hang around our guesthouse. We are staying at a wonderful, small and friendly place (Sukhothai Guest House) located in the midst of Sukhothai new town, some 10km South of the old city. The owner, Mr Dang, whose grandfather was Indian, runs a really relaxed budget establishment that supplies everything one could want (bikes, wifi, laundry, decent cooked eggs for breakfast) including our own shaded/covered wooden veranda with traditional lie-down benches with Thai cushions. The temperature is perfect for lounging, reading and snoozing. Tomorrow, we pick up a motorcycle to visit a related site 57 km north (Si Satchanalai) which apparently is more rustic and atmospheric, after which we plan to move onto Chiang Mai.
