Our 2008 tour of Thailand was severely abridged when the People's Alliance for Democracy, the Yellow Shirts, closed down Thailand's main airport, Suvarnabhumi, for more than a week. We were on the island of Koh Samui and thus stuck out there in the Gulf for nearly two weeks before things resolved and air service was restored. Actually, Koh Samui was a pretty nice place to be stuck during political unrest (
https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2008/11/), but the loss of time meant we wouldn't see any of northern Thailand. So now our travel plans will pick up where they left off in 2008, seeing Sukhothai, Chiang Mai, and Chiang Rai (where we are now) in the north.
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| Our trip to the north began with a taxi ride across Bangkok |
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To the Chatuchak bus terminal; we might have flown directly to Chiang Mai,
but wanted to see the archaeological site at Sukhothai; so we took the bus, a
six hour ride |
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| T-shirt vending machine in the terminal |
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Aboard the bus; actually pretty nice, and indeed nicer than commercial flying
economy in the US; clean, wide reclining seats, AC, toilet, stewardess, snacks, stops
for food, etc. Only the movie was awful. |
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At one of the food stops, a 3 lb bag of squid doodles...yum!
The bus ticket entitled you to a full Thai meal too |
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The terrain was mostly flat and dry, alternating forests and
fields, occasional towns; and then these somewhat serious
out-croppings of rock; then flat again |
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At last--and after an 11km tuk-tuk ride from New Sukhothai to Old Sukhothai--
we arrived at out hotel |
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| And typical Thai welcome |
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Just off the pool; teak everywhere, traditional, we felt like we were staying in
Jim Thompson's house |
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| Next morning, at a great free breakfast, the coconut pancake station |
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| Breakfast table with view |
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| Artifacts and such on display everywhere |
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| Traditional recycling too |
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| Legendha Sukhothai Resort |
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| Our room at the far left |
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| The significance of the elephants will emerge... |
