Back in Nakhon Sawan the end of term was just around the
corner and so was my big goodbye. I
soaked up as much time with the munchkins as I could, and could finally see the
fruits of my labour as they excitedly formed sentences. There were days when my lesson plan went out
the window in favour of the conversations that organically flowed through the
classroom. Mind you, these are 5 and 6
year olds so the convos were frequently about Elsa, robots, and sharks. One of my younger students once told me that
he goes to school on a big brown dinosaur with red eyes. I’m not sure where he parks it, but it might
explain the delirious expression on the security guard’s face.
Yet again there was a long weekend to celebrate a Buddhist holiday,
so I packed a bag and headed for Sukhothai, north of Thailand. I’d been wanting to visit for a few months,
but typically I keep the closest places til last as they’re “only up the road
and I can go anytime”, but this blasé attitude usually results in my missing
out on what’s on my doorstep. Not this
time, I headed for the bus station the evening before to check the bus times
and returned bright and early the next day only to be told that the next bus
was in 90 minutes. This is a regular occurrence. With the language barrier
it’s difficult to explain the intricacies of any situation so a foreigner
simply gets told “mai mee” (don’t have).
This can be frustrating when you’ve heard conflicting information or you
can see what it is you want right there.
There may be some valid reason why it isn’t available, but when the
person you’re speaking with has limited or no English you simply hear ‘don’t
have’. My advice in this case is to take
a seat and wait. This is one of those
situations where the mantra I’ve adopted from Thailand comes in handy, “mai bpen
rai”*. Anyway, I got there and some hours
later I was alighting and being shouted at by Tuk Tuk drivers. I found a Sorngthaew that doesn’t rip off
tourists and pretty soon I was bound for my guesthouse. I chose the new city as I thought it would have the
better choices of guesthouse and eateries, being “new”. The new part of the city seemed quite large
and with only two days and a scrambled brain I did not bother venturing further
than my street, except to catch the bus to the old city. The bus between the old and new Sukhothai is
a painted wooden trailer containing long benches, like in a Sorngthaew, with a
truck front, pretty cool and very cheap.
It stops just outside the park, where you purchase a ticket.
The last bus back is 5pm and, as I was budgeting, a Tuk Tuk
at tourist prices was out of the question so I was already too late to see any
of the ruins. I sauntered around, taking
in bike hire prices and breakfast spots and jumped back on my wooden chariot
for some dinner. I found a cosy little
restaurant on my street where I ordered steak and red wine and nestled in to
read my book. I was at a pretty riveting
plot twist which just kept getting more and more exciting, so I ordered a
second glass, and a third glass, until the words blurred and I had to take
myself off to bed. Goodnight Nana…
I woke with a thumping headache, a queasy feeling, and the
guilt of threatening to ruin my short trip.
I wasn’t having any of this bad behaviour, I was going to get up and do
what I had planned and I was going to learn my bloody lesson (I was using my
‘teacher voice’ on myself here). I
caught the bus to the old city and forced down some toast and coffee, before
hiring a bicycle, so pink it looked like it was coughed up by My Little Pony, and
headed for the park. This was where the
magic is, the Sukhothai
National Park is filled
with ancient ruins of temples and pagodas, and for the life of me I can’t
differentiate between the two no matter how many people I’ve asked. I had read on travelfish.org that there are
many routes in and out of the park where beautiful views and pagodas can be
found. My crappy sense of direction
ensured I only found one outside the park, however not even shite navigation
can deter one from happening upon the beautiful ruins inside. It’s an amateur photographer’s dream. In fact most of Thailand is, one can photograph all
around and appear to be super talented while the landscape and street life
scenes do all the work just by being perfectly photogenic. But I won’t tell anyone if you don’t. The wind wisping through my hair as I glided
along the pathways was a terrific hangover cure and I was myself in no time.
I finished up and handed back my girly pink bike in time to
catch the last bus back to the new
city.
Regretfully I looked back on the old city with the sun fading down into
the horizon and dreamed of what it would be like to see it sink down behind the
majestic pagodas. I wished I had booked
a place to stay here, it was closer to the beauty and the cafes had a better
choice of fresh juices and ground coffee.
I guess I was being a typical tourist here, wanting western standards
but as I’ve mentioned before, when you are eating Thai food all day every day
it makes a nice change to have eggs and toast for brekkie whilst on
vacation. Anyway, first world
problems. All in all it was a much
needed break after the craziness of Christmas, and ahead of the busy and emotional final
term. So, so, final.
*http://baanajarn.com/living-in-thailand/understanding-mai-bpen-rai/
http://www.travelfish.org/location/thailand/northern_thailand/sukhothai/sukhothai]
Photos: Sinéad Millea.
