Venturing North

And I am back!! Our last day in Bangkok we walked around Th Khao San, which is the main tourist strip, visited the Tourism Authority of Thailand to book some things, and visited some museums and temples. One in particular was so cool, it was called Wat Arun or 'Temple of Dawn' and it had little colourful pieces of ceramic incorporated in the whole structure. Also monks being everywhere make the temple visits feel more authentic :) We are not in Bangkok anymore (which is a relief - waay too busy for my liking!). We have begun our trek to Northern Thailand, having stopped in a town called Sukothai for 2 days/nights. It is about halfway between Bangkok and our next stop, Chiang Mai, so it was a great stop place! We bussed here yesterday on a lovely air-conditioned bus (on which we were the only non-Thai people) which included a 20-minute food stop on the side on the highway which we used our 'meal cards' included with the bus tickets! Pretty luxury for here. Got here around 230 yesterday and walked around the town, had some dinner and tucked in early. Woke up today and took a 'bus' )more like a pickup truck with two wooden bench rows as seats along the side)to the Old Sukothai, which is where the Historical Park is! Met a very nice Dutch girl who was traveling by herself; we rented some bikes to get around (ALSO to create a much needed breeze..holy) and biked around the ruins!!! Very cool to see, they were super crumbly in spots where they weren't reinforced, but that's ok because those are the REAL 'ruins'. Apparently Sukothai was one of the first 'kingdoms' (?) in Thailand so that was very cool to see! Sooo many Buddhas. I need to figure out what the different Buddha hand positions mean. After our very warm day biking around the historical site, we sought out a local pool to hit up - BEST THING EVER. Except it was the local pool so all the children a the pool were waaay more interested in us 'farang' (foreigners) than in swimming. Swimming and book-reading was exactly what the doctor ordered though. Yay for preventing heat stroke! Tonight is our last night here, tomorrow on to Chiang Mai!! We are planning to possibly do an overnight 'trek' there which includes hiking, elephant riding, and staying in a hillside tribe's village! Also a possibility to avoid supporting the use of elephants so much in the tourist industry is to visit a rescued tour elephant park and to help clean / feed the animals. Maybe both. Conflict of interest?? Here in Sukothai it is LOVELY weather wise, well let's be honest I am still melting during the day, but it is not so humid so it actually cools off at night! It is supposed to cool off even more as we go North, which I fully support. Our guest house does have pillows that weigh 18 pounds and feel like bricks though so maybe we'll avoid that next time? Keep you posted, as always!!!!