So I hitch hiked from Mae Sai to Chiang Mai, 4 hours in the car of a very kind Thai family who dropped me at the backpackers district. Chiang Mai was OK, but I was expecting something else. It is a very big town, very modern and although there is plenty of pagodas, temples and the old wall it seemed too touristy, even the huge night market was full of cheap tacky souvenirs so I decided to take a train to Lamphun. The train ride was nice and only 5 Bat! On the train I met a group of students and one of them gave me his bracelet, so nice! I can't believe how nice Thai people are, always friendly and with a nice smile in their faces. Lamphun is like a mini Chiang Mai, it's got everything: the market, the temples, the old city wall, all of it minus the tourists, yoohoo!
From Lamphun I took a bus to Sukhothai, there aren't direct buses so I stopped first in Lampang. I arrived late in Sukhotai but I found a lovely guest house and the next morning I rented a bicycle to visit the ruins of old Sukhothai. Very impressed!! They keep the old town in very good condition, even if you are not so interested in visiting ruins is delighful just to ride around the nice gardens, the entrance of the town is 40 Bats and you can visit all the temples. Sukhothai was the old capital of Siam during the 13 and 14th century, the whole place is full of stupas and ruins of the ancient temples.
After Sukhothai I took a bus to Phitsanulok because there is a train station there. I left my backpack at the station and went to see a temple called Wat Yai, which is famous in Thailand because it helds the most beautiful sitting buddha. Well, I don't know if it was the most beautiful, but it was nice enough, all shine and gold. In front of the Buddha people were shaking a wooden cup with wooden sticks, so I did the same thing. After a bit of shaking one stick falls down and there is a number on it, so you have to ask for a piece of paper with that number and in the paper is written your fortune. And my fortune was that I would have good luck traveling south, how cool is that!! After so much excitement I decided to treat myself to a foot massage...
From Phitsanulok I took the train to Ayutthaya, which was the capital of Siam after the Sukhothai period. The train ride was great, I ate grapefruit with sugar and chili, delicious! and I made friends with a Thai guy that had an old book about Thailand in English, so I learnt many things I didn't know about the country.
Ayutthaya was nice. But a tiny disapointing. Of course, after visiting Angkor Wat Ayutthaya is a bit of a let down because the temples are khmer style and there are very ruined, also there is a fee of 30 Bat for each temple you want to visit, and the path for the bicycle is not as smooth as the one in Sukhothai, but in any case I did have an excellent time there. I bought food at the local market and I had a picnic in the old town, then I rode the bicycle around all the temples and far into the new Ayutthaya where I discovered many other ruins of temples and stupas that maybe were not so popular but still lovely.
Ja veieu que no paro!! De vegades em penso que soc en Willy Fog, pero la veritat es que no s'em fa gens pesat, m'encanta moure'm d'un lloc a un altre i quan trobo un poble especial llavors descanso. M'estic atipant de veure temples i mes temples i ruines i estupes i budes gegants, i tambe m'estic atipant literalment. Em penso que m'he engreixat uns 6 kilos ja! i m'he hagut de comprar uns pantalons nous, es que la cuina tailandesa deu ser la millor del sudest asiatic i tambe deu portar un fotimer de greix i de sucre, perque no ho entenc, em paso tot el dia caminant amunt i avall i anant amb bicicleta, pero be, no problem!
La ruta que segueixo va de nord a sud: del Triangle d'or fins a Bangkok i de Bangkok cap a l'oest.
Vaig en autobus o en tren, que es super barat i la millor manera de coneixer a la gent d'aqui. Ara estic viatjant amb un noi japones que es diu Atsushi i ja vam coincidir a Vietnam, despres a Laos i ara a Tailandia! El mateix em va passar amb una noia de Taiwan, la Nai Chi. Ens vam coneixer anant de Tailandia a Cambodja i despres quan menys m'ho esperava tornavem a coincidir: Cambodja, Vietnam i Laos, pero ella ja ha tornat cap a Taiwan...
Doncs be, despres de Mai Sae i de passar un dia a Birmania vaig anar tirant cap a Chiang Mai (gran ciutat, maca pero massa trafic, soroll i turistes), Lamphun (un poble que havia estat ciutat reial i on encara es conserven ruines de l'epoca, a mes d'un temple molt gran amb el gong de bronze mes gran del mon!!), Sukhothai (PRECIOS, sobre tot les ruines de la ciutat antiga, no pas el nou poble que no te res d'interessant...), Ayutthaya (ciutat molt moderna pero plena de temples i ruines, em va agradar pero els temples son de l'epoca d'Angkor Wat i es clar... "no hay color"...).
From Lamphun I took a bus to Sukhothai, there aren't direct buses so I stopped first in Lampang. I arrived late in Sukhotai but I found a lovely guest house and the next morning I rented a bicycle to visit the ruins of old Sukhothai. Very impressed!! They keep the old town in very good condition, even if you are not so interested in visiting ruins is delighful just to ride around the nice gardens, the entrance of the town is 40 Bats and you can visit all the temples. Sukhothai was the old capital of Siam during the 13 and 14th century, the whole place is full of stupas and ruins of the ancient temples.
After Sukhothai I took a bus to Phitsanulok because there is a train station there. I left my backpack at the station and went to see a temple called Wat Yai, which is famous in Thailand because it helds the most beautiful sitting buddha. Well, I don't know if it was the most beautiful, but it was nice enough, all shine and gold. In front of the Buddha people were shaking a wooden cup with wooden sticks, so I did the same thing. After a bit of shaking one stick falls down and there is a number on it, so you have to ask for a piece of paper with that number and in the paper is written your fortune. And my fortune was that I would have good luck traveling south, how cool is that!! After so much excitement I decided to treat myself to a foot massage...
From Phitsanulok I took the train to Ayutthaya, which was the capital of Siam after the Sukhothai period. The train ride was great, I ate grapefruit with sugar and chili, delicious! and I made friends with a Thai guy that had an old book about Thailand in English, so I learnt many things I didn't know about the country.
Ayutthaya was nice. But a tiny disapointing. Of course, after visiting Angkor Wat Ayutthaya is a bit of a let down because the temples are khmer style and there are very ruined, also there is a fee of 30 Bat for each temple you want to visit, and the path for the bicycle is not as smooth as the one in Sukhothai, but in any case I did have an excellent time there. I bought food at the local market and I had a picnic in the old town, then I rode the bicycle around all the temples and far into the new Ayutthaya where I discovered many other ruins of temples and stupas that maybe were not so popular but still lovely.
Ja veieu que no paro!! De vegades em penso que soc en Willy Fog, pero la veritat es que no s'em fa gens pesat, m'encanta moure'm d'un lloc a un altre i quan trobo un poble especial llavors descanso. M'estic atipant de veure temples i mes temples i ruines i estupes i budes gegants, i tambe m'estic atipant literalment. Em penso que m'he engreixat uns 6 kilos ja! i m'he hagut de comprar uns pantalons nous, es que la cuina tailandesa deu ser la millor del sudest asiatic i tambe deu portar un fotimer de greix i de sucre, perque no ho entenc, em paso tot el dia caminant amunt i avall i anant amb bicicleta, pero be, no problem!
La ruta que segueixo va de nord a sud: del Triangle d'or fins a Bangkok i de Bangkok cap a l'oest.
Vaig en autobus o en tren, que es super barat i la millor manera de coneixer a la gent d'aqui. Ara estic viatjant amb un noi japones que es diu Atsushi i ja vam coincidir a Vietnam, despres a Laos i ara a Tailandia! El mateix em va passar amb una noia de Taiwan, la Nai Chi. Ens vam coneixer anant de Tailandia a Cambodja i despres quan menys m'ho esperava tornavem a coincidir: Cambodja, Vietnam i Laos, pero ella ja ha tornat cap a Taiwan...
Doncs be, despres de Mai Sae i de passar un dia a Birmania vaig anar tirant cap a Chiang Mai (gran ciutat, maca pero massa trafic, soroll i turistes), Lamphun (un poble que havia estat ciutat reial i on encara es conserven ruines de l'epoca, a mes d'un temple molt gran amb el gong de bronze mes gran del mon!!), Sukhothai (PRECIOS, sobre tot les ruines de la ciutat antiga, no pas el nou poble que no te res d'interessant...), Ayutthaya (ciutat molt moderna pero plena de temples i ruines, em va agradar pero els temples son de l'epoca d'Angkor Wat i es clar... "no hay color"...).
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