Sukkothai

As we are quickly running out of time in Thailand and since I had a couple of off-days while Jana was teaching, I decided to set off on my first trip outside of BKK without Jana. I chose to travel to Sukkothai, a former capital of Thailand in the 13th and 14th century. Sukkothai is visited mostly for its ruins; I spent the vast majority of time there biking around an historical park set up there. In other words, I rode around in a large circle for two days, hiking up to ruins, taking pictures, and sweating profusely.
The ruins are impressive (check out the photos); my personal favorites are also the main attractions--two wats called Wat Saphan Hin and Wat Sri Chum. The setting of the park--lush, tropical plant life, set against large hills--is also enjoyable. I spent a lot of time out in the middle of the countryside with no one around except for cows.
The large majority of the wats pictured have been restored. Many of the Sukkothai ruins were discovered in the 20th century and subsequently studied and re-built by Thai and Western archaeologists.
Besides the ruins there is a national museum with Sukkothai artifacts and additional eclectic items. Unfortunately, photos were not allowed inside the museum, but I did take photos outside the museum. The main attraction of the museum was getting to see the evolution of the Thai writing system. King Ramkhanaeng created Thai script and I was surprised by how little the system had changed since it was first used. (Check out the picture of the King--he has a tablet in his hand and a sword at his side.)
Other than that, I'll let the photos speak for themselves; Jana and I are both anxious but excited to return home soon!

Bike Tour

This was one of my favorite things we've done in BKK. Bangkok is often a difficult city to navigate and see a lot of for several reasons: traffic is often terrible, sidewalks are in bad shape in many places, and overcrowding can make moving from one spot to another on foot a challenge. On this tour, though we were able to see a lot of Bangkok quickly moving from the center of city out to the suburbs and then on to an island that is not even part of BKK.
As mentioned, we began near the center of BKK and headed through one of several chinatowns. These "chinatowns" are so named because they're populated largely by Chinese immigrants and their descendants. These "towns" are densely populated with houses made out of lots of improvised materials (see the pictures). At many places during our ride the sun was almost completely blocked out--like riding through a cave or a dense forest. Bangkok is a city of stark contrasts: We went from riding through an area with gigantic skyscrapers and extravagant condo buildings to neighborhoods with shacks built on top of shacks built on top of more shacks in a matter of minutes. The differences are certainly more than aesthetic; the physical proximity of these distinct neighborhoods underlines the wealth gap in this still-developing country. (Our guide said that almost everyone that lived in this area had an air-conditioner and cable tv; but I'm not so sure).
After our trip through Chinatown we headed across the Chao Praya river to a small island opposite BKK. This "island" is called Prapadaeng and is created by a large bend in the Chao Praya river that almost completely circles the area. The area is a government-protected, partially-developed swamp. In many places the only way to get around is on bike or motorbike since the "roads" are 4-5 foot brides suspended over the swamp water. At times this can be a little harrowing and our guide said that she has about one person fall every trip. Unluckily for me, I helped meet that prediction; coming around a corner a little too quickly my bike headed off the bridge while I headed onto the ground, face first. I was fine, just a little cut on my hands. Luckily for me, I have no shame, so I was completely unembarrassed.

Hua Hin Part II

We recently returned to Hua Hin, a medium-sized beach town about 3 hours South of BKK. As I had just returned from Sukkothai, I think Jana was a little jealous and eager to get out of the city.
After a quick and refreshingly efficient minibus trip, Jana and I cleaned up and went to a restaurant/pub to watch Wimbledon. The food is the true highlight of Hua Hin; both Thai food and Farang food are noticeably better in Hua Hin. Jana and I both ordered Thai food--Jana ordered pad pak ruam mit (stir-fried vegetables with oyster sauces) and I got gai pad med muang (stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts). We then spent the rest of the night trying to avoid vendors and watching tennis.
The next morning we headed out to the beach. Hua Hin's beach is certainly not as pretty as the beaches in Southern islands--the water is a little sandy and the beach is a little muddy. (Hyper-development has contributed to the discoloring of the water). But the beach was very peaceful (not many people around at all) and later in the day the water looked much prettier. We also received massages on the beach--a common benefit at most beaches in Thailand. After about four or five hours on the beach we decided to head in. We spent this night as we had the previous, eating delicious food and watching tennis. The next morning, after some haggling, we arranged a taxi back to BKK. Even more effecient than the minibus; our driver had us at our front door in under 3 hours.

Not the most active of our trips by far but since we only had a couple of days (really a little less) this little trip worked out perfectly. It's a shame we didn't find out about the minibus before now; this was a much better way to travel to Hua Hin and still provides a great break from the urban jungle that is BKK. The guidebooks we have tend to mostly reference government-subsidized transportation, which is cheaper but considerably slower.