Adventures in Thailand - Part Two

What I wrote on my last post seems like ages ago, but I think it was only on Monday. This recap may be LONG.

So, on Sunday night we took an overnight train from Bangkok to some place that begins with a P. This train was hysterical. It wasn't like one of those nice overnight trains that you take in Europe where you have your own compartment and share it with others. This train had one walkway in the middle of the car and beds on each side, one on top, one on the bottom. So the four of us had our own space anyway but still it was just very old school and strange, like from a movie once again. Mairead and I were on the bottom beds and had open windows next to us; she had to fight off a flying cokroach during the night but it was one of the best nights of sleep I'd had so far. We were supposed to arrive in P place at 4:30 am, but didn't get there until 6:30 am. The bus station was supposedly around the corner (it wasn't) so we took some local bus to it where the lady bus driver wanted to be our friends and gave us her phone number and address (as did one of the workers in Nam Tok, really random!) We got the bus to Sukothai which I think was the first capital of Thailand?

There are two parts of Sukothai - the old city and the new city. My advice for both - don't bother going to either - this place is BORING!!! From what I saw of the new city, it was smelly and seemed blah. We stayed in the old city where there's absolutely nothing to do. By the way I forgot to mention in lots of places here (like the internet cafe I'm in right now) or the guesthouse in Sukothai you have to remove your shoes before going in. I kind of like being able to walk around stores and hotels without shoes, a bit random but everything's been clean so far so I like it. Anyway, in Sukothai, we rented bikes and of course it started pissing down with rain. I didn't bring a proper rain jacket, just a crappy emergency plastic poncho that I'd bought in Bed, Bath, and Beyond and I got very wet. When we went to the 'museum cafe' for lunch, all they had were Lays potato chips, which was not what I was hoping for. When the rain ceased we rode around the sites of the old city. Saw some more big buddhas and temples which is funny to me because in Europe all anyone does is see churches, and here I'm doing the same just with buddhas and temples, it gets boriung fast!

Not sure if I mentioned this before but there are dogs everywhere here. They are scary when they growl cause I think they've got the rabies and are out to zombify me, but I've learned this past week that it's mostly males trying to hump the ladies and the ladies howling back and telling them to get off (and they try and try again, particularly underneath where I've been sleeping lately (in bamboo huts) and under the dinner table.) So, I saw my first few dead dogs on Sukothai and a dead snake which was slightly disturbing but all part of the action I guess.

So as there's nothing to do there, we just ate dinner at a local restauarant where I got beef and rice, and the amount of beef they gave me added up to less than the size of my palm, talk about portion control! (I had fried ice cream after though which made up for it nicely.)

The next day we left there and got a 5 hour bus to Chiang Mai which is where I am now. I finished reading A Million Little Pieces and cried for a good portion of the ride, but I recommend it. Anyways, we reached the bus station and got picked up by the people from our guesthouse. Speaking of which I'm starving and we have dinner soon there so I'm going to head back right about now.

I'll write about my Chiang Mai/jungle adventures in the next entry, not sure when. I'm off to Laos in two days on some scary speed boat to run myself into the arms of communist guerrillas. If you don't hear from me again it was nice knowing you!