i arrived in sukuthai at about 5:30 yesterday afternoon. a five and a half hour bus ride from chiang mai after saying goodbye to jenn. we are masters of farewells.
i stepped out of the bus to be mauraded by touts telling me to stay in their or their friend's guesthouse. i had a basic plan and politely shooed them off, jumping on a motorbike taki and telling him to take me to the nearest motorbike rental shop. i handed over my passport (something i'm loathe to do, but is a necessary piece of collateral to rent a bike in thailand) and signed my name for meow, the smiling lady working at the rental shop/restaurant/guesthouse. then i sped off with my heavy pack on my back to the sawadee guesthouse, where i had stayed during my last visit to sukuthai almost four years ago. though i am making my way to bangkok, i made plans to stop in sukuthai and ayuthaya for a few days each in order to photograph the stunning ancient cities that have been kept up in the form of thai national historic parks. sukuthai was a bustling siamese city from 1238 to 1438 and was the capital of ancient thailand for about 140 years.
today, the old city has been excavated and partly reconstructed. i've been spending the day scooting around the old city grounds, photographing the towering stupas, smiling buddhas and crumbling temple ruins. though this is the low season (aka the rainy season; it's already rained twice today) there are still a number of tourists around, both farang and thai. nowehere near as bustling as when i was last here in november of 2004.
i've been periodically dropping back to a coffe shop called the coffee cup located within the walls of the old city, that serves real coffee (and even my requested coconut-coffee shake), good thai and european food and has a small internet cafe. an ideal escape from the midday heat.
i'll stick around for most of the day and hope that i'm blessed with some good light and sundown. right now the sun is shining, but dark clouds border the horizon and threaten more rain to come. the coffe cup also has a thai massage parlour right next door, so i know what i'll be doing should the heaven's tear open again. :)
