[Above: King Ramkamhaeng's Stele inscription (replica)]
Entry #21: July 10, 2011
So today I decided to a take a bit of an excursion to the world heritage site which is the Sukhothai historical park. What is a interesting about the site is that there is a small fee you can pay which allows you to ride a bike around the grounds, making the long walk a quick bike ride from place to place. I managed to see the most important part of the park (at least for me) first which was the monument to King Ramkamhaeng. When I was working on my thesis for an independent study at NIU this inscription was partly used in my research. Although the stele that is available at the park is evidently not the original sculpture though, the original has been moved to Bangkok. I hope to eventually see the original but none the less the replica was very interesting to see. I thought I would really like to get a rubbing of the stele, but I did not have the supplies on hand, nor do I know entirely if this would be acceptable, there was no partition or anything keeping the stone out of the elements and especially because it was not the original I do not think this would be an issue. I feel like I may come back to Sukhothai to see more of the ruins and monuments and perhaps on my next journey I will accomplish my goal of procuring a rubbing of the stele. The bicycle ride around the park was really fun, I have not really ridden a bike since I was a little kid, so it was fun to take this form of transport and in the process I met another American. She was visiting the site as well with her surrogate family because she is volunteer teaching within Thailand for several weeks. We all traveled around the park together, and I was glad to have the company as it can sometimes be a bit tedious traveling alone all the time. Also it seems she will be visiting Chiang Mai in a week or so with some friends, thus it may be likely to meet my new friend again in the future. I have had good luck thus far meeting new friends, and travel companions and hope that everywhere I go I will continue to be so lucky. Thus far I have made friends with a very nice couple from Spain, several local Thais, and now a Californian student, if I continue this trend it might not be so difficult to have people to visit all over the world for my return trip to the states.
It is my hope to show proper respect to each part of Thailand I visit and today was not so much different. Before visiting the heritage park I went with my driver to a temple and offered up a prayer with some incense, although our communication was somewhat limited at best, he showed me some of the different aspects of a smaller temple including striking a huge gong three times. Then we used some bamboo cylinders which had a bunch of numbered bamboo sticks within. The object is to think about your fortune and you shake the bamboo cylinder until one of the sticks rises up which is then your answer. The temple we visited had each fortune written in Thai, English and Chinese and mine seemed less then fortuitous, it explained that my luck is not so good right now and it is not a good time to look for a relationship. I suppose this is sound advice as I am leaving for Chiang Mai tomorrow afternoon! Also there was an area for feeding the fish, perhaps this is a common exercise within Thailand, but right next to the temple was a little cart with buckets of pellets which you could give the fish. It really is an intense thing to see, because the fish (mostly catfish) are literally laying on top one another in a tiny little corner of the pond to receive some food, you can see most of the pond is placid and tranquil then there is one small corner near the feeding area which is not penned in but absolutely loaded with fish evidently waiting for food. A bit bizarre, but I think it is something fun to do for a few minutes.
I am looking forward to getting on to a new area of Thailand as I have finally become aware of the potential downsides to my lovely resort experience. #1 is the mosquitoes, yesterday and today it has been rainy, and the little devils have sprung up everywhere! The surprising difference is their bite seems much longer lasting, normally back in Illinois if I get bit my a mosquito I can ignore it and the swelling goes away rather rapidly, here the swelling stays for a great deal longer. The second downside of my stay in the resort is that it is a long way away from everything. I hadn't really noticed because I wasn't taking excursions out everyday like I had elsewhere, but today we had to drive 35 minutes or more just to get to the main attractions in Sukhothai. Although I don't mind the lost time, the expense is prohibitive because there are not ample amounts of taxi drivers competing for your money. If you want to go anywhere you really must use a private service, which is rather costly. So I think the next time I return to Sukhothai I will look for something a little bit more centrally located. I still have enjoyed my stay thoroughly and if you are just looking to get away I highly recommend it, however if you are just trying to see the sites and keep to any type of budget skip the private resorts, at least in Sukhothai.
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