I found a site that had some routes mapped out for the ride to Chiang Mai, so I followed one for the trip to Si Satchanalai.
As far as rides go, this one didn’t look to bad on paper – not on a highway, fairly close to a river… But it was busy, flat and boring. It may as well have been a highway, and I couldn’t see the river at any point.
The day was filled with Rice paddies and a few other crops, but not much else.
The most exciting part was me ushering a black crab with only one claw, over the road before he got squashed. He finally made it to the other side with a lot of urging, and when I looked up, I saw I had an audience. People were saying ‘Very good’ and ‘thank you thankyou’ but there was one guy with a durry glued to his bottom lip and he just looked at me like I was from Mars.
Along the way, I booked a place near the Historical Park, but it turns out, the main town is about 15kms away. So, there wasn’t much around when I arrived. Luckily, they had a restaurant open all day, and even more luckily, one lady spoke a few words of English.
I worked out that I was the only guest that night and they treated me like a king. The bungalows were great, overlooking the river. So, I arranged the times for dinner and breakfast so they wouldn’t be waiting for me.
I spent the latter part of the afternoon at the Historical Park which was (going out on a limb here), better that Sukhotai. Very few people, quite compact and just a little bit different.
As the Park was closing, I visited a Wat which sat outside the park, beside an operating monastry. It was the best set of ruins I’ve visited. There was a a Prang, a standing Buddha, remains of a Vihara, and you could climb most of the way up the Prang. I enjoyed it, in the beautiful end-of-day light.
Sidenote – the steps were really steep, the railings were really low and if you’re going to climb it, I hope you’re insured and don’t have vertigo.
Back at the ‘resort’, I didn’t laze around over dinner. I preferred to let the nice people finish up and go home.
Injury update – the toe looks ugly and the knee isn’t too bad.