Go directly to the following cities:
Chiang Mai
Nan
Phitsanulok
Sukhothai
Si Satchanalai
Kamphaen Phet
Ayutthaya
Suphan Buri
Phetchaburi
Bangkok
We flew from Frankfurt to Bangkok in early August and landed in Bangkok
at about 10:30 in the morning. The first thing we noticed was the heat and
the humidity, it was like walking into a sauna as we left the air
conditioned airport!
On that same day we flew to Chiang Mai in the north of Thailand. Chiang
Mai is 700 km north of Bangkok, and is the second largest city in Thailand
with approximately 1/4 millon inhabitants. We found a Tuk Tuk to take us
to the hotel. (A Tuk Tuk is a kind of taxi. It really is a motored tricycle
where 2 to 6 passengers can be transported.) Chiang Mai (that means New
City) was founded at the end the 13th century and was part of the Kingdom
of Lanna. In the 16th century, it was occupied by Burma and only two
hundred years later became part of Thailand (or Siam, as it was called
then). A different dialect is spoken and the food is different to that of
rest of Thailand. In Chiang Mai, there must be about 300 Wats (Buddhist
Temples or monasteries). In my guide book it says that if you walk with
your eyes closed, you will, for sure, end up in a Wat or at least step on a
monk. Both days we spent in Chiang Mai we visited Wats.
The most important and the beautiful of these wats is Wat Doi Suthep and
a saying says that to go to Chiang Mai and not to go to Doi Suthep is like
not going to Chiang Mai. The temple is on the top of a mountain and it is
one of the most sacred places in Thailand. Apparently a monk, guided by a
dream, found a tiny bone of Buddha's middle ear. The bone was put on a
white elephant and the elephant immediately made three sounds like a
trumpet and started to leave the city. It went up to the mountain, made
again the sound three times, turned three times and sat. The king knew he
had to do something, so he buried the bone and built a Chedi (kind of a
round pyramid) that is 18 meters high and is completely covered with gold
leaf. The Chedi is now the center of the temple built of marble, with the
ceilings adorned with gold leaf and small pieces of colored mirror. Many
believers come to the temple to bring gifts to Buddha and to the monks.
People buy lotus flowers and incense to offer to Buddha or a small piece
of gold leaf to put on one of the many figures of Buddha. They also bring
food for the monks. There usually is a monk in a room to accept the gifts.
The monks are not allowed to have any physical contact with a woman, so
if a woman brings the gifts, she must give them to a man, so that he can
give them to the monks. If there is no man around, the monk tells the
woman where to leave the gifts. The monks do not have to thank the gift
giver, on the contrary, he is doing the people a favor accepting their gifts.
The one who benefits from the gifts is the one who brings them. Chiang
Mai is a very touristy city and sometimes we got the impression it was
easier to find pizza restaurants than Thai food. We found a Thai
restaurant, and among other things, they were selling some sort of fried
worms (somebody told us they were bee worms) and insects that looked to
us like grasshoppers.
Our next stop was Nan which is about 80 km from the border with Laos in
the north of Thailand, and is a very small town. The airport was a one
story building with two rooms. We had to stay two days in Nan, since
flights only land 3 times a week. We arrived Monday and we had to stay
until Wednesday. That day we dedicated to inspect the town and the
market. In Thailand there are many fruits that we had never seen before
and we took advantage of the opportunity to try them. My favorite was
rambutan (similar to Litchi), which is a red ball the size of a mandarin and
has spikes. They are easy to peel and inside they have white meat and have
a seed the size of an almond. They are very sweet. We also tasted durian.
It is is a very large fruit (like a melon), with spikes, but these spikes are
hard. The inside is white and the outside is yellow. Durian is famous (or
infamous) for its smell. In some hotels it is not allowed to bring durian
into the hotel because it stinks so terribly. The taste was good, just very
strong.
The following day we took a one day tour of the area. We saw the rice
plantations and the people at work. Our guide stopped and talked to a lady,
who was picking snails. She showed us the eggs of the snails and they
were bright pink. We later went to a factory, where sling blades and
knifes were made from scrap metal of old cars. We saw typical Thai
houses that are build on stakes, since this area floods every year. We also
went to a textile factory. In the afternoon we went to a national park and
saw a beautiful waterfall. We visited a village of laotian refugees. We
went up a mountain (the highest in Thailand) and we saw the largest palm
trees in Thailand. From the top of this mountain we could also see Laos.
We came back around 5:30 and went out for dinner. We ate green papaya
salad and sticky rice.
The next day we flew from Nan to Phitsanulok, about 350 km from
Bangkok. The most important sight in Phitsanulok is Wat Ratana Mahathat
and its beautiful statue of Buddha. This statue dates from 1557. He is
sitting and around him is a golden dragon of fire. Buddha is also covered
with cold and is sitting on a black altar that was specially designed to
show off the beauty of the statue. With the black background, the three
meter statue seems to shine.
Our next stop was Sukhothai, about 150 km from Phitsanulok. Sukhothai
(the dawn of happiness) was founded in 1238 and it was the first capital
of Thailand. King Ramkhamhaeng (who invented the Thai alphabet and
introduced Buddhism to Thailand) lived here. The ruins of the old city is
now a historical park that was created by the Thai government and
UNESCO. In the park, there are tons of ruins of Wats, and Buddha figures
that are 15 meters tall. It is very well taken care of and it was my
favorite place in Thailand.
The following day we took a half day tour to Si Satchanalai, about 100
km from Sukhothai. It was very hot! In Si Satchanalai, there are also ruins,
some of which are even older than those in Sukhothai and were built by the
Khmer. These wats seem more like pagodas. That afternoon we visited
other temples outside the historical park. The most impressive was a
sitting Buddha about 10 meters tall. These figures are usually found in
relatively small buildings, where not much else fits besides them. In fact,
you could never fit the figure through the doors! That day was also the
birthday of the queen. In Thailand the kings are almost like gods. Almost
every house has pictures of the kings. Her birthday was a holiday: the
schools were closed and there was a huge parade in Bangkok with
fireworks.
Our next destination was Kamphaen Phet (Diamond Wall), about 120 Km
from Sukhothai. In Kamphaen Phet there were more ruins like in Sukhothai,
but not as impressive. It was very hot and the sun was so strong that we
couldn't enjoy ourselves watching the ruins. We ran into a Thai family that
spoke some English and they gave us a ride back to the hotel. After
visiting the market and buying lots of fruit (including bananas, for which
this place is famous for) we sat at the park to rest and watch a group of
men playing Tadraw, a kind of volleyball played with the feet.
The following day we left Kamphaen Phet to go to Ayutthaya, which is 80
km north of Bangkok and about a 300 km south of Kamphaen Phet. Of all the
bus trips we took, we never had problems, although there was never
anyone who spoke English, except of course, this trip. The problem was
that Ayutthaya is very close to Bangkok and the bus we took went to
Bangkok. I now believe we were supposed to tell the driver to stop on the
outskirts of Ayutthaya, but we didn't know that and the bus didn't stop and
we ended up in Bangkok. The bus terminal is north of Bangkok, but there's
always lots of traffic, so it took us one hour to arrive in Bangkok and
another hour in returning to Ayutthaya. When we arrived in Ayutthaya, we
soon found a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to the hotel. He convinced us to hire
him for a tour for the following day.
Ayutthaya was founded in 1350 and was the second capital of Siam
(Thailand). It was the capital for 400 years until 1767 when Burma
invaded Ayutthaya and the king had to change the capital to Bangkok. The
invading forces of Burma, when seeing that they could not maintain their
invasion decided to burn Ayutthaya. They destroyed wats, palaces,
libraries and chedis. They melted statues of Buddha to steal the gold and
killed many Thai. Only ruins were left. The driver of the Tuk Tuk picked us
up at 8:30 and took us for a 4 hour tour to see the important ruins and
temples of Ayutthaya. Among them, of course, gigantic images of Buddha,
and chedis Thai style and Khmer style. In a particular temple there were
6000 statues of Buddha. I did not count them myself, but it didn't seem an
exaggeration.
In the afternoon we took a bus to Pa Bang In, which this 20 km south of
Ayutthaya and where the summer palace of the king is located. The palace
consists of a series of buildings of different styles. Most of the buildings
are European style and in the gardens are statues of Europeans. In the
middle of the gardens, there is a lake and in the middle of the lake a Thai
style temple. Of all the buildings, the most beautiful was a Chinese style
building, which was given to the king by the Chinese department of
commerce. It is hard to describe it, but it has all the typical Chinese
decorations and adornments in a single place. Not even in China did we see
something so beautiful and so typical Chinese. There was also a light
tower painted like a mosque. After the palace, we crossed the river and
visited Wat Nivet Thamaprawat, which is the most exotic temple we saw.
The whole monastery was constructed European style. Each house was in a
different German style. The main building was like a gothic church with
colored glass windows of scenes of Buddha's life. And inside statues of
Buddha.
The following day we continued our trip to Suphan Buri that is about 150
km northwest of Ayutthaya.There's not much to see here, but we wanted to
go there, to later go to Petchaburi in the south without having to go
through Bangkok. My guide book says that if you want to practice your
Thai, here is the ideal place to do it, because people are very friendly and
they are always smiling. After leaving the things in the hotel we took a
Tuk Tuk to go to Wat Palelai where a 15 meters tall figure of a Buddha
sitting in a chair can be found. Theo decided to check his fortune. In all the
temples they have big glasses with wooden sticks inside. Each stick has a
number. People take the glass and shake it until one of the wooden sticks
falls out. For a small amount of money you get a paper with your fortune
on it. Unfortunately the paper was written in Thai and we could not find
someone to translate it. Later we bought jicama and guavas as big as
apples, but green. We found a bench and sat to eat. A young man came to us
and, although he didn't speak English, he decided to make conversation. We
figured out he was asking, if we had seen the gigantic statue of Buddha
and we said yes. He later asked us, if we had seen what was behind the
Temple. We went to look, but did not find anything, except several fortune
tellers. When we returned the man was still seated on the bench and we
told him we hadn't found anything. So he decided to show us himself. On
the back, there was a small temple with a statue of Buddha. He told Theo
to take off his shoes (one always must take off the shoes to enter the
temples), to kneel and bow to Buddha, then he should lift a large stone,
then a second larger stone and at the end both together. Then I had to do it
too. I had no idea what that meant, but we had a lot of fun with him! Later
the young man decided to be our guide and give us a tour of the monastery.
We managed to understand that there was tomb where an important monk
was buried. He continued explaining things, but we couldn't understand
what he was saying, so he got totally frustrated, he said good by and left.
We stayed at the monastery and saw somebody bring some fish for the
lake. The Thai think that to buy animals and let them free, brings good
luck. Throughout we saw people selling birds so the buyer can set them
free. (I ask myself if it is not bad luck to catch them!)