Sukhothai (January 7, 2010)
When we met our vans to head out to breakfast, we found a few raindrops on the windows. As we consumed our bowls of delicious duck noodle soup under the awnings at a sidewalk noodle shop, the skies opened. We enjoyed snacks from the market, including khanom krok and tasty little pork sour sausages (made sour with fermented rice), hoping for a break in the rain. We skipped the usual leisurely market walk and dashed around for just the essentials: duffel bags and liquor. As we left town, we could not resist stopping to watch a parade. Each different school or student group seemed to have its own color and theme. Some carried traditional flower decorations, while others had banners or signs. The photos will be a bit blurry due to the low light, but hopefully a few will turn out. A final detour to a coffee shop and we were on the road for the long drive to Mae Sa Valley.
Bangkok is only the most recent capital of Thailand, whose various predecessor kingdoms date back more than a millennium. Ayutthaya (also spelled Ayuthaya and Ayudaya, and pronounced eye-YOO-tea-yuh) was the capital of Thailand from 1350 to 1767, when it was sacked by the Burmese. A few years later, the capital was re-formed in Bangkok and Ayutthaya’s temples — looted of their gold by the Burmese — fell into disrepair. Today, they consist largely of brick ruins with beheaded Buddhas (some were destroyed by the Burmese, while others were crudely broken off for the antiquities trade before the city became a protected site). Still, you can get an impression of the grandeur of the city during that time.