(written by Nancy)

We had a nice wake-up call this morning from the neighbourhood cats fighting and running around on the metal roof of our room.  Not a great sound early in the morning but we were both just hoping they wouldn’t be attracted to our cycling shoes that we had left outside to air overnight as they already smell bad enough without some extra cat scent added!

We had a nice breakfast at the guesthouse – muesli, yogurt and fresh fruit, a nice change from the usual eggs and toast (and hot dogs).  We chatted with the owner a bit – one of the 3 J’s but I didn’t quite get his name down.  We finally pushed off just before 8am – a bit later than we have been getting out but we knew we didn’t have a really long day ahead.  And best of all, it was not raining when we took off and we didn’t see any big black clouds ahead of us.

We took a bypass road around the city to get to Hwy 101.  There seemed to be a bit of traffic but it eased off after we passed what looked like several government buildings about 5k or so from town.  For about the first 25k or so from Kamphaeng Phet Hwy 101 goes through a forested area so we rode along with trees lining the road on each side of us.  We could see a few houses out amongst the trees, and there were quite a few stalls set up along the road – most seemed to be selling corn of some flavour, often looked like freshly-cooked corn on the cob.  I couldn’t get Dave to stop for an ear of corn – can’t believe that anyone would not like corn on the cob but Dave doesn’t, if you can believe it.

We also passed by what looked like a small Buddha production shop – well, perhaps shop is bit too strong a word for it, it was really a field with several Buddhas in various states of development.  We were too early to see anyone working on them but it was a bit eerie to see the large pieces of what looked like marble cut in a very rough shape of a Buddha and then other Buddhas a bit more advanced in the carving, a foot showing, one side of the head with the ear completed, the other without…

We stopped at the village of Phran Katai for a bite to eat.  The town is off Hwy 101 so we rode into town to see what we could find.  We couldn’t find our usual petrol station/7-11/coffee shop combo but did find the necessary facilities at a little gas station.  They did not have a store however, so we continued through town to try to find something to eat and drink.  Dave, in his usual manner, continued to take the smallest road/alley as we wound our way further and further from the main part of town and the highway where the stores were notwithstanding my attempts (louder and louder) to get him to turn left back to the highway.  I finally convinced him to head back to civilisation so we could find something to eat and sure enough, when we got back to the highway we could see there was a Tesco Lotus down the road that we had gone past.  Suitably chagrined he suggested we ride back to the Tesco, which we did and had a nice iced coffee and some muffins.   Not that I am expecting that result to change future behaviour – as they say, past performance does not guarantee future results. (Editors note: Me thinks, when someone has memorized 85ks of route, including all turns and road names, before the day actually starts, others should be more grateful when they have yet another day of error-free navigation)

Back on the road we came along a beautiful wat – our map indicated it was called Wat Mai Charoen PhonHua Khao.  There were multiple statues with Buddhas in various poses and one large temple with several men working way at the top to repair the shiny mosaic tiles.  None of the fellows were tethered or roped on or anything and there was a simple scaffold of a few bamboo sticks around the top.  Scary work, I think.  Anyway, it was quite peaceful set amongst the trees.

We turned off Hwy 101 onto a back road at the little village of Khiri Mat but first stopped for another iced coffee and a snack.  The lady who ran the little coffee cart had spent 9 years in New Zealand working as a plasterer – hard work she said, so she finally quit and came back to Thailand.  Her English was quite good so we chatted a bit as we drank our coffee.  She showed us her NZ driver’s license – Dave took a picture of it as evidence to prove how long her last name was.  It was quite a tongue twister.

Once we hit the back road we were riding amongst the rice fields.  These rice paddies seemed to be in very good shape – lush verdant green fields, there did not seem to be too much flood damage.  It appears to be harvest time for some of the fields as we saw several folks out with harvesting machines.  And then further up we passed by people who were drying the rice along the road.  Well, not really along the road but on the road – they just take up one lane and lay the seed down on a kind of netting to dry.  Pretty amazing to see.

We made it to Old Sukhothai with no rain – great to ride without getting soaking wet for a change.  We had a list of several places to check out for accommodation and as we came through town we saw the sign for the Old City Guesthouse, which was almost directly across from the entrance to the Sukhothai Historical Park.  We looked at a couple of rooms – they had a decent room for 500B so we took it.  There is a ‘New Sukhothai’ town as well, about 12k from here, that apparently has quite a few accommodation options but we wanted to be close to the park so this guesthouse fit the bill.  There are quite a few places to eat right around here as well so we won’t starve.

After cleaning up and getting something to eat we headed over to the museum that is part of the park.  It has some nice displays and explanations of the history of the area.  Old Sukhothai is often described as the first capital of Thailand (Siam at the time) and the area is said to have had a profound impact on the art, language and development of the country.  The park is full of the remains of historical sights (hence the name!) – there are entrance fees to each of the 5 zones in the park so we didn’t try to go into the park this afternoon but will save that for tomorrow.  We did wander a bit as there are also ruins outside the park so we have included one Buddha picture from here – you can expect many more pictures of Buddha and ruins in tomorrow’s post.

Dave went and got some takeaway noodle soup for dinner so now it’s off to bed to rest up for a heavy day of sightseeing tomorrow.

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