Hoekom het ons van 'n groot stad na 'n klein dorpie getrek!

Korat/Phimai - Khon Kaen - PHISANULOK/SUKHOTHAI - Chiang Mai - Pai

🎥 Video about our last week on the way to Chiang Mai:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6A1pdAg5go&t=8s

As you may have already learned, we ended up in Sukhothai (small town) because there wasn't much to see in Phisanulok (bigger city) and we didn't feel comfortable in the hostel there.

In Phisanulok, we arrived after a six-hour bus ride from Khon Kaen. We were given water and biscuits and had a massage seat, but six hours is enough in a bus that goes up and down the curvy roads the entire time.

In Phisanulok, we had a very special hostel. Neither the front door nor the rooms could be locked. So anyone from the street could have entered the hostel and stolen Finn. The other side of the house facing the river didn't even have a wall, so any snake or lizard could have come up the stairs and walked into our hostel. We arrived in the dark on the first night, and I think everyone knows that when you've only seen something in the dark, you only feel half as comfortable. On top of that, there weren't many light sources in our room, so we decided to sleep together on a 90cm wide stone-hard mattress. But we survived everything and even stayed there for two nights (in one bed). Because such a place can also become quite cozy with the right people. 😊

In Phisanulok, there wasn't much to see. We visited a relatively large and very beautiful temple complex, where Finn hurt his foot while descending a very steep temple staircase because you are only allowed to enter the temples barefoot. Finn had to be treated by the police. It was quite cute because when we went to the police and asked for a plaster, they immediately brought a huge emergency kit to us, disinfected the wound, applied some iodine, and only then did we get a plaster. They were really nice. In the end, the "lifesavers" wanted to take a selfie with us 😅.

In the city, we strolled through the streets and let everything sink in, and there were yellow t-shirts everywhere.

What's the deal with all the yellow t-shirts that you can buy everywhere? Yellow is the color of the king in Thailand, and he has his birthday this month, so his huge picture banners are decorated.

Additional information: the king's daughter is studying in Germany, and the royal family of Thailand even has a house in Germany.

Now to Sukhothai:

Sukhothai was originally planned as a day trip, but you can also take a bus from there to Chiang Mai. So we thought about staying there for one night. One night turned into four nights, and we enjoyed them very much. We had a great hostel that was very stylish and cozy. Including breakfast with homemade jam 😍 (feeling at home)

As you could read in the last post, we had a beautiful and very strenuous hike in the region! We also visited a school. Because the hostel is in contact with a Thai English teacher, we didn't want to miss this opportunity. At the school, we spoke English with the students, who were 14 years old, as well as we could. However, the children had the level of a third-grader in Germany. So the communication was limited to: favorite food, favorite color, favorite animal. But the children were very cute and excited, so it was a very nice and exciting experience. Not only the students were happy, but also the headmaster and the English teachers. In the end, we even gave autographs as if we were famous 😅.

But that's not why we originally went to Sukhothai. Sukhothai is primarily known for its old town with the "Historical Park," which we certainly couldn't miss on our temple tour.

Fortunately, we didn't miss it. This complex is the largest we have seen so far. There is a central Historical Park as well as extended temple complexes arranged in the cardinal directions. We visited the center on foot, walked around, relaxed, and observed some birds and insects in the large park area. We traveled to the extended temple complexes by scooter. We liked the north and west the most. In the north, you can see a complete "Big Buddha," and in the west, the ruins are scattered in the forest. Since the complexes are hardly visited in general and almost no one is in the west, there is a special feeling and charm to the imposing temple ruins. You feel like a real explorer in such less visited places. It is possible to have very special encounters in such places. We were lucky again and the two guards waved at us. We went to them, and suddenly they offered us homemade schnapps. Nice, from a plastic bottle into a small paper cup. At first, we thought the men wanted to give us water 😅. But it tasted really good. It was a clear and not so potent or dry schnapps. After that, we were offered a sweet sausage to eat, but it wasn't very tasty, but out of politeness, we ate it. But that wasn't enough because we were also offered pomelo. That was quite good after the not so tasty sausage. After they wanted to give us much more schnapps, we had to decline graciously because we still had to ride a scooter. So we were bid farewell by the two slightly drunk guards with air kisses. Very friendly and funny encounter! 😄

As you could read, we have experienced a lot in the last few days and in the "whole week" in central Thailand.

If we had to choose a place to visit, it would be Sukhothai, as it is very similar to Ayutthaya (just with fewer visitors), and you can do and experience a lot of other things in the area!

Next stop is Chiang Mai for real now 😉 until then