There were a few legs to our travels to get to Sukhothai that you can read about here. Two of the primary drivers to including Sukhothai in our travels (besides the fact that it’s just a super fun word to say, wink) is that we were told it was:
Angkor Wat “lite”: This was a draw because we ultimately chose to take Cambodia (including Angkor Wat) off our itinerary, in favor of adding Laos; just not enough time to do them both properly. So we were happy to have an alternative to Angkor Wat, albeit on a much smaller, less grandiose scale.
Fun to bike around: The girls LOVE to bike, and haven’t been on bikes since early June in NYC. Being able to give them (us) a few days of leisurely bike riding sounded awesome.
Biking Machines
Our three days in Sukhothai were full of biking around the Sukhothai National Park, which contains almost 200 ruins from the 13th/14th centuries. We had these beautiful temple ruins largely to ourselves and relished every moment of it.
Our days were spent cruising around & exploring on our bikes for hours on end. We’d walk to the main drag of town (about 15/20 mins walk from our hotel) and rent bikes first thing in the morning from a little shop in town. Bikes were 30 Thai Bhat a day, which works out to about $1 USD. Can’t beat that! No helmets to be found anywhere, which seems to be par for the course in this part of the world. Even on motorbikes/scooters, you hardly ever see anyone wearing a helmet. We’re quite militant about the girls (and us) wearing helmets for safety, but we had to turn a blind eye these days.
The first day Sadie didn’t feel confident on the kids bike. Five months off a bike and she lost her mojo. We didn’t want to force it, so we opted for Doug to ride a bike that had a little padded seat off the back. Throughout the day we’d make little comments to boost her confidence that she could try having her own bike the next day. On the evening of our first biking day, Sadie announced that she was ready to go out on her own & would get her own bike the next day. Woo hoo! No surprise to us, she wobbled for the first few minutes and then was golden on the bike the whole rest of the time!
Paige - like Sadie - was ecstatic to be back on a bike. We joke that Paige is a speed demon and has a need for speed; the faster, the better in her mind. Master of her own destiny on the bike, she charged ahead and started hot doggin’, showing how she could ride with one/no hands or stand up while pedaling. She wiped out twice and scraped up her palm and knees. Some antibacterial brown liquid and a soft bandage later, and she was back cruising along.
Temple Paradise
We gawked at the gorgeous temples and Buddhas that we encountered along the way. The Buddhas appeared less stern than those we saw in Bhutan; they had a hint of the Thai smile :) Sukhothai National Park is divided up into a few main sections, each of which requires it’s own ticket to enter. We hit all of them over the course of our three days and absolutely loved meandering along. Some highlights were the main temple complex, a huge seated Buddha, a standing Buddha atop a hilltop and some surrounded by elephant pedestals. We were struck by how well maintained the temples were. Each temple (or collection of a few near each other) seemed to be managed by a single caretaker, who would be sweeping up the leaves, burning leaves to remove the waste, etc.
One of my favorite things was that there were visual cues all around us that it was their Fall season. The leaves were certainly past their peak colors, but yellow, tan and reddish leaves were still everywhere we looked. Those on the ground would crisp & crunch brightly under our wheels. Fall is my favorite season by a landslide. I missed having a proper Fall this year, and enjoyed seeing pictures of Fall from family & friends afar Sukhothai looked like Fall in many ways, but felt like the most gloriously perfect Summer day. Perfect combination!
Each day we’d stop at random roadside stands to get water and lunch. We were for sure the first Westerners that many of these folks had seen in a long while. We relish those kinds of moments. Where we get a small glimpse into a local life/business and a chance to interact/connect with locals, even if it is just for a few moments. One such memorable stand was on our first day, and we pulled over to buy some water. The owner was in a wheelchair and was kind as we purchased the bottles of water. The girls desperately needed to use the toilet, so we asked. He led Doug & the girls back to the toilet, which ended up being their private home bathroom! Doug said the home was modest but well cared for & impeccably clean; pride in their few belongings. We thanked the man and went on our merry way. Funny enough, the next evening when we were back in the main area of the National Park, we saw the man in the wheelchair again. I actually didn’t register that it was the same man from the stall, but Sadie came running over and told me “Mommy, that man in the wheelchair was the one from yesterday. He recognized us and we smiled at each other!” How sweet is that? :)
In a nutshell, that’s how we spent our days in Sukhothai, press repeat and you have our time there captured :) Being able to explore the Sukhothai temple ruins via bike boosted the fun & memorability factor. We covered so much ground, and loved moseying along on our (old school) bikes. Regular bike rides are going to seem a bit ho hum after Sukhothai :)
p.s. After one of our days of marathon biking, we stopped at a roadside stall nearby our hotel for water & a beer. The girls were getting a bit antsy, so I suggested we play a game. Out of nowhere, the game from our childhood, MASH, popped into my mind. I improvised an "RTW (Round the World)" version. Instead of marriage and number of kids, it had categories like what country you were going to live in, which friend you would travel with, etc. The girls loved it and we all ended up having a blast with it! Patent pending for RTW MASH games, haha :) Results from our rounds revealed in videos below:
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