OSC: Here is another wonderful treat, curried cassia flower and leaves with brown rice.

OSC: Here is a very rare treat, salad! (clarification: there are lots of salads here, but this is the first that resembled salad from home)

OSC: Here is a better picture of the kids and their instruments.

OSC: The full moon illuminates a school band playing in front of an ancient chedi. They didn't particularly enjoy their photos being taken.

OSC: Barbecued chicken is typically eaten with sticky rice, eaten with the fingers as Robert is demonstrating and of course is served in ubiquitous clear plastic bags

OSC: Here is a barbecued chicken bit and the wonderful sauce, spicy tamarind sauce?

OSC: We met a parade of giant krathongs (floating baskets), dancing women and drumming men.

Old Sukhothai City: Old Village Representation

During the day, we found a section of the Old City that was
demonstrating what life used to be like. Here a woman is demonstrating
how pots used to be made (still are made?). She is wearing traditional
dress and the small child in front of her also wearing traditional
clothing was one of the many children who had visited the dress-up
station and were running about. I think many schools sent their kids
here for the day instead of holding classes. Older kids were walking
around with surveys and practicing their English on hapless tourists
(us) or copying information from each of the many stations. I can't
think of the word for these places, but we have lots of them in the
states - whole real life villages acting like pilgrims or colonists,
etc. What are they called???

Sukhothai old city: Standing Buddha

I forget the name of this wat, there are so many around here. (ok. I
looked it up. It is wat sra sri). But this Buddha is special because
he is walking. This is a posture that was first seen in Sukhothai and
symbolizes his descent from Tavatimsa heaven. If you look closely at
the Buddha statue, you will see a dragonfly perched on his head.

Sukhothai old city: Riding Chopper Style

We saw many young Thais riding around the city sitting on the back
seat of the bikes so I thought I'd try and look cool too.

Sukhothai old city: Thai electrical standards, these were all over Wat Mahathat for the light show

Sukhothai old city: These oil lamps lined all of the ruins and were lit after dark, illuminating the structures in a spectacular way.

Sukhothai old city: Here is a close up of the intricate detail of the banana leaf tower.

Sukhothai old city: banana leaf tower that decorates many different places around the city

Sukhothai old city: King Ramkhamhaeng Monument

Sukhothai: Better look at the spear gun

Sukhothai: Crazy fisherman with some kind of spear gun

Sukhothai: Farang (guava) with sugar, salty, chili pepper bits.

Sukhothai: green drink (Robert), green milk tea (Jenn)

Sukhothai: more soup porn... Kway Tiaw Tom Moo (thick rice noodle with pork soup)

Sukhothai: soup porn... Ba Mii Tom Pak (egg noodle veggie soup)

Sukhothai: Mmm Thai iced coffee

Sukhothai: Guido and his wife cooking. I wish I could handle a wok like her (says Robert).

Sukhothai: My boyfriend, our trusty motorbike handler.

Ramkamhaeng National Park: Jenn's preferred method to see over the edge.

Ramkamhaeng National Park: It really wasn't that bad, only a hundred foot drop or so.

Ramkamhaeng National Park

I tried to tell her she looks terrified but she couldn't do anything about it.

Ramkamhaeng National Park: All the food we brought for our 6 hour hike.

Ramkamhaeng National Park: That's all one Ficus tree.

Ramkamhaeng National Park

The porter carrying a group of Thai guys gear that were camping on the
top for the night. He beat us all to the top.

Ramkamhaeng National Park

It was at least that steep the whole way up. It reminded us of Asgard
pass in the Enchantments minus the giant boulders and dead people.

Ramkamhaeng National Park

This is the half way point up to Na Rai Peak, the lowest of the 4
peaks around. That is sweat Robert is drenched in.

Sukhothai: Our friend Kevin from Portland.

Sukhothai: The potato fryer lady.

She is in the process of dropping her spoon into the hot oil to make
another one. You can see the previously fried potato and tofu bits
resting by the oil. Very tasty.

Sukhothai: Man Farang Thawt (fried battered potato bits)

Old Sukhothai: Wat Chi Chum

It is an open air Mondop. The Buddha is very large compared with the
rest of the room. This Buddha is also known as the "legendary talking
buddha" because there is a passage way that accesses the crossbeam of
the mondop, near the top of the walls and if you talk inside the
passageway, it sounds like the Buddha is talking, or so they say. The
passageway was gated off when we visited.

Old Sukhothai: Wat Chi Chum Buddha hand, Bhumisparsa Mudra (resisting temptation)

Old Sukhothai: Monk praying at Wat Chi Chum

There were actually 4 others with him and the woman gave both of us
some buddha beads and we think tried to invite us to their home
temple. It was hard to tell due to the very little English they spoke.

Old Sukhothai: Cairn at Wat Phra Phai Luang

11-18-10: Recovery

Noodle soup for breakfast plus Thai coffee and a green milk tea for
me. Tried out my new phrase, can I take your picture and was told no.
It was disheartening. Farang for our vitamin c booster, consumed in
front of the 7-11 because they have chairs out front. Money run from
the ATM - worst exchange rate yet: 28.01. Bleh. Coffee at a new place
(pai coffee), stayed there to write, but poor kid doesn't have a book
anymore, so he is sad when I write.

Chang and a yogurt drink juice box to fortify us to walk back to the
guest house to use the facilities. Went by 99 guesthouse to find Naa,
a cook recommended in the guide book whose restaurant was not where
the book said. We found her husband, who speaks very little english
and he said to come back to the guest house tonight at six...for? We
arent sure, but it involves eating - kin khao. Guido's for lunch of
pad Thai, sprite and Chang. Played cards, jenn is on a record losing
streak. Went to a second lunch of rice and meat and veggies and more
Chang and more cards. We are nursing our overexertion of yesterday
with lots of food and beer, how better? Oh yes, you can get a foot
massage! Which we did next. It was ungodly good. Foot soak in lemon
grass lemons, oil rub of feet and legs, wooden awl and pressure
points, more rubbing....hour goes by...finish it out with an arm and
shoulder/back massage quickie, and a cup of tea. Hot damn. Addicting.
The proprietor even said, come back tomorrow? Thai massage? We smiled
and left, but might take her up on it.

Coffee to help us rejoin the living, more sore than before. Went back
to 99 to figure out what is supposed to happen tonight, we found Naa.
She was giving an english lesson, but welcomed us to sit and talk for
quite some time. She tried to get us to engage her pupil, but she was
shy. Speedy gonzalez is Naa's favorite - channel 2. She was wearing a
sarong, not expecting company. She showed us how to read the town name
- pitsanulok, in Thai, insanely cool. Those squiggles do mean
something!! She gave us some good info about the festival and that we
should only ever pay 20B to ride to or from the old city. Overall she
renewed my interest in learning Thai or any language for that matter.
We left with promises to come back the next day to go with her husband
and a tour group to Tak to see Loy Krathong Sai - burning coconut
husks in a line. Tomorrow she is leading an all gay tour group, who
made special exception to meet with her, usually only using male tour
guides, but they call her "gibbon," in Thai this means she is the one
woman with a bunch of Thai men, not sure if it is a rude thing to say
or not, but she didn't mind. It was a delightful conversation and she
welcomed us to come back whenever we wanted to talk or sit around. We
might take a cooking class from her if we stay in town after the
festival.

After this, market food, Chang at chopper, street dinner of morning
glory, tomyum and pad see ewe - WAY too much food. Rolled ourselves
home for a second day in a row. (with a bag of donuts for a late night
snack if we get hungry!!) I promise we are not gaining a million
pounds, yesterday we climbed up and down a mountain, we just like to
eat.

11-17-10: Khao Luang Mountains

This was a good day.

Since we are taking it super slow and waiting about a week for the Loy
Krathong festival, we have exhausted most of what Sukhothai proper has
to offer, so we branched out. We found a National Park nearby,
boasting mountains, jungle and a waterfall. Problem is, it is just far
enough away to make transportation difficult or expensive to arrange.
Motorbikes, however, are cheap to rent (about $8 US/day). So...we
rented a motorbike!! A terrifying prospect indeed, but it got us where
we needed to go.

We woke up extra early so we wouldn't have to drive through a
convection oven to get to the Khao Luang mountain range (khao meaning
both mountain and rice, among other things) at Ramkamhaeng National
Park. We rented a lime green bike from our guest house and the
obligatory two helmets. It is illegal to ride bare-headed, but many
people do. On Koh Chang and in Trat, we passed check points where the
police were corralling and ticketing all motorbikers without helmets.
Robert went for a spin around the block without me to get used to the
bike, having driven one only once previously and having gotten only a
two minute tutorial from the guesthouse transport guru. And away we
went! (me clinging to Robert like a scared puppy)

Turning was the worst part. I was worried we were going to tump the
thing on it's side and the listing required during a turn convinced me
of it. It was hard for me not to lean out of the turns and throw off
Robert's balance and control. After a few harry turns, Robert taught
me to simply cling to him all the more tightly during a turn and
things generally turned out for the best. We were so nervous at first
though that we managed to leave town without stopping for food or
water. We did manage to stop for gas, one of us sooner than the other.
Robert turned into the gas station right as another motorbike was
leaving and they ended up dancing. You know when you are trying to
walk past someone and neither of you can decide on which side to pass,
how you sort of "dance"? We did that, but on motorbikes. Robert
wobbled and I abandoned ship! Without my weight recovery was easy and
both bikes completed their turns, leaving me looking a fool in the
middle of a field of concrete wearing a baby pink helmet.

After that, we got better. We found lunch and then the park, driving
through beautiful rural rice fields to get there. We paid the guard
220B total to enter, each getting our ten tickets and one for the
motorbike. Why so many? No clue. We rounded out our ration of 750ml of
water with two more similarly sized bottles and a small bag of
peanuts, then hit the trail. We had a map and knew the trail to be
about 4km to the top of the mountain, but that is all we knew. We
didn't know our elevation nor the mountain's. We got slightly down the
trail when I noticed the absence of my sunglasses, not that I needed
them on the dense jungle trail, but I retraced my steps and found them
at the bottom of the small pool where I leaned over to take a picture
of a fresh water crab.

After that small hiccup, we walked - climbed rather. The trail never
looked back; it went up at ungodly angles for most of the way. There
were buckets of clean water to wash your face along the way and a few
bamboo benches for resting. I don't know how better to describe it
than it was tough, but rewarding. There was only one other group that
we saw: five young Thai guys and their two porters. They had the
genius plan of camping at the top for the night, tents can be rented
at the top so all you need is food and water, but we were not so
smart. The camp at the top was pretty extensive, but we didn't explore
it much because of time constraints.rather we walked another 400m to
summit the smallest of four nearby peaks. The view was great, but
climbing on the exposed boulders was nerve-wracking for me. At one
point I was trying to pose for a picture while standing on a rock, but
Robert wouldn't take the picture until I stopped looking so
scared...finally he gave up. We couldn't stay too long on the top
though because we were racing daylight and brooding thunderclouds.

The rain never came and we made it down in an hour and a half, dirty
and hungry and cotton mouthed. Our paltry rations had long been
consumed. We went to the park store and grabbed two waters, then an
ice cream and more peanuts, sitting awkwardly in the restaurant
section without paying, while the staff waited for real customers.
Eventually we paid and Robert coaxed me back onto the motorbike.

Riding home was damn-near pleasant. Setting sun, gorgeous country,
steady driver. We made it home, stiff from the drive, but safe.

One more good story before the day ended. Dinner. I wanted noodle
soup, my standard. We went to the night market to eat, a semi-indoor,
open-air affair. Some other night we had been disappointed by one of
the places on the outside edge that sends out touts to offer you a
menu of you look western and are passing by. Again--- you'd think we
would know better by now. This time we walked blank faced passed the
excited waitresses surprised at their our success at garnering repeat
business to the hidden gems within. We found a woman cooking who
looked intriguing and sat at her shop. We ate noodle soup with
veggies, pad Thai muu, and a new dish, a Thai noodle roll I think is
how it was translated (basically a thin egg omelet surrounding fried
noodles). Then we kept our seats for the next hour(?) just watching
her cook. She was a machine. The only emotion I saw in her was when
she noticed I noticed her trying to cook on her flame that had gone
out and she rolled her eyes and half-grinned. Other than that it was
all business. Then we ordered another round of food, more soup for me
and a vietnamese egg wrap for us both, because it was frequently
ordered. She was actually making fast food for most people, wrapping
up the noodles and bagging fresh veggies for them to take away. Pad
Thai is a stereotypical street or fast food here. To round out your
impression of the place, don't forget her husband. She ran the wok
while he prepared soups, cleaned and took money. He was an interesting
sort, short-sleeved button down shirt, opened to reveal chest hair and
a thick gold chain. We nicknamed him, "Guido." Apologies for any
offense.

Robert says he can't sleep. My typing sounds like a mouse mosh-pit and
is keeping him up.

Robert wants to specify that we had dinner for five for two. (this is
how we quantify overeating, not that it happens often enough for us to
have a naming-convention for it or anything...)

We rolled ourselves home to sleep off a wonderfully strenuous day.

11-16-10: Chillin' Out, Maxin', Relaxin' All Cool

Not much to report on this day. We hung out in New Sukhothai, saving
further exploration of the Old City for the weekend festival. We found
a great place for noodle soup along the main road, heading away from
town. Then we got a farang (guava) chopped with sugar/chili dip for a
blast of vitamin C. Then...wandering more, to the post office for
Robert, to our favorite indoor A/C cooled coffee shop and some cards.
There we made our first travel friend - a lone guy from Oregon, but
originally from Humble, TX. We chatted for a while, enjoying
interacting with some fresh meat. He moved on and so did we, I think
we went back to our guesthouse for a while.

Then we went out to brave getting a massage. We haven't tried it yet
because they like to heckle you from the street, which is off-putting.
We decided on a place that didn't heckle and I went in, Robert wanted
to watch before taking the plunge. It was a little awkward at first
because I didn't know what I was supposed to do or what my masseuse
was going to do. There was strange Thai discovery channel playing in
the background, something about big cats and their hunting skills, but
it wasn't distracting to be because as soon as I closed my eyes, it
just turned into a stream of sounds. The massage was nice, nothing
revolutionary, but nice. She used her body to manipulate mine, which
was cool. For example, she held my foot and then pushed her feet
against the underside of my thigh and leaned back so she got a lot of
leverage as she walked her feet up and down my leg. I want the words
for, "you can massage harder," but I don't know if my Thai will ever
be that good. Sometimes it just felt like she was touching me, not
actually doing anything, but it was still an enjoyable new experience.

Next we went to the market for food and food we found. We hit up the
donut lady again, making sure to get extra to save for an after dinner
snack and trying all the different kinds of fillings. We got all the
regular things too : sausage balls served with raw cabbage, fresh
squeezed oj, farang, fried chicken with spicy chili sauce. And
then...branching out, we went up to this woman who was deep-frying
tofu and these other bits. I watched her from a vantage point behind
her for a while, she was crazy busy which is always a good sign, but I
couldn't figure out her ingredients. She scooped up something from a
big pot, dropped the entire long-handled spoon into the hot oil and
then turned it out of the spoon to rest near the pan, where it would
stay warm. When someone ordered one, she would chop them into fourths,
bag them and then make up a sauce from a spoon of this and that and a
ladle full of liquid brown sauce. We took the plunge in a break in the
crowd. I asked her what it was and lots of Thai later, some flipping
through my mini phrase book and we discovered it was: man farang!!!
(potato)!!! We enjoyed it and the tasty sauce immensely. I would love
to be as skilled as many Thai cooks are at whipping up a sauce from
six or seven open containers of spices.

Next we meandered back to the main road where the more sit-down type
street food is and we revisited a place from the other day, I got pad
see ewe and Robert got a fried rice pork dish again. Interestingly
enough, they don't usually serve "fried rice," as you might think of
it or how Robert would like it. What is marked on the menu in English
as "fried rice," usually is just white rice with stir-fried meat and
veggies. Not sure why or how to correctly order Chinese-style fried
rice, but maybe Robert will be motivated to figure it out since it is
always his dish of choice.

Also at this dinner spot, we met out friend again. We ordered another
glass and shared our Chang (very cheap at this spot) and had some more
good conversation. Then we split our desert donuts, which we had raved
about to him earlier. The Bavarian creme ones are by far the best, but
Robert likes the creme puffs better, claiming to like the higher
filling to donut ratio. He is crazy, but it works out so that neither
of us will have to share our tasty treats! We carried the mini-party
over to Chopper Bar for one more beer (and a hawng nam to relieve
Robert's too-full bladder). Some how we carried ourselves home -
normally we stick to one, maybe two beers, tonight we had six? Too
much.

Now that I'm thinking about timing, I'm realizing my days are a little
off. All the stories accounted are true, they just might be a little
jumbled - sorry!

11-15-10: Sukhothai

Today we had a full day in Sukhothai. Although there is usually a lot
of asking, "what should we do now?," days when we don't have a travel
plan are best. We ate rice soup at Poo Restaurant, a fact that did not
go unnoticed by a Belgian ex-pat. How long have you been here? Two
weeks. Ah, so that's why you eat rice soup in the morning. We think
they then overcharged us slightly, which happens frequently, but it's
always so hard to tell for sure and never an amount worth quibbling
over, so we don't.

Next we tried to get a bus to take us to the Old City. The attraction
at Sukothai is not actually in Sukothai, which seems like a strange
arrangement. The new city with all the markets and amenities is 15 km
east of the old city, the ruins that everyone wants to see. Perhaps
there was a natural division between new and old, perhaps the city was
planned that way so they could depend on that much more tourist
revenue. Supposedly the cheapest transport is via the city buses, but
they aren't regulated, so the price changes depending on time of day
and the driver. We were quoted 80 a piece, which is awfully high for a
meandering bus, so we opted to hire a private tuk-tuk to take us for
the same price.

After a stop at the gas station, we arrived. There is a big festival
here over the coming weekend, so this was basically a recon mission.
We scoped out two guesthouses there to see if we can stay in the old
city for the festival, but one place jacked up their rates and the
other place couldn't speak enough English to convey more than come
back later and we will see if we have a room. Annoying, but okay. The
one amusing bit of the story is that we had to convey that we wanted a
room, not for tonight, but for the weekend. I whipped out my phrase
book and went to town trying to pronounce the days of the week. The
woman was totally flummoxed. I was unrelenting, moving on to the most
easily pronounced days, just to give the woman context of what I was
trying to say. It took awhile, but eventually she repeated one of the
days of the week after me (using the same pronunciation to my ear, but
not to hers) and had a good laugh when she realized what I wanted and
of course I wanted to book a room for the festival; that is what
everyone is doing right now.

Next we went exploring a bit, by foot- big mistake. Everywhere you
look you see people trying to get you to rent a bicycle from them, so
we just ignored them, thinking they were trying to scam us. They were
not. Bikes, we found out later, are only 30B for the whole day.
Shoulda, woulda, coulda. We walked. We didn't know exactly where we
were headed, but we ended up in the North Zone of Old Sukhothai at a
lake/moat. There was a herd of cows on the opposite side, so we
crossed the bridge. Throughout the day we saw several other herds,
apparently the wat ruins are an excellent place to graze your herd. We
wandered around the nearby wat ruins, but really my favorite part of
that wat was that people had made a million rock cairns and stacked
them all over the place.

We kept walking, this time with a plan - to find Wat Chi Chum, which
was recommended on TravelFish and supposedly nearby. We found it, paid
our 100B for this temple and the last, and went in. It looked very
unimpressive from the outside - just a small square building (now I
know it is called a mondop) with pillars in front of it. We walked up
and there was a loud echoing chanting emanating from the inside. A
thought that keeps kicking around my head is the inadequacy of a
photograph, sounds and smells are lost and cannot readily be shared.
We walked closer and noticed a few people inside, chanting. Out of
respect, we did not enter the temple, instead we explored the temple
grounds a bit. Eventually though, we agreed that we most likely wound
not be able to outlast the chanters, so we removed our shoes and
stepped inside, sitting with feet pointed away from the Buddha. It was
incredible. The Buddha completely filled the small, open-roofed room
and the chanting echoed around the walls in the most amazing way. We
ended up just sitting, wide-eyed, taking it all in for quite some
time. We also sparked a western invasion. Those just arriving saw us
there and were more willing to come in to take pictures. They were
respectful though, so it seemed okay. There was one monk leading the
chanting, with a woman, another monk, and two men in white clothes
(novice monks?) following his lead. We were mesmerized, but about to
move on when the chanting changed a bit, so we stayed longer still and
then they stopped. What now?! They all stood up, stretched and then
turned around to say hello. They spoke no English, so as far as we got
was hello. The woman reached into her bag and gave us each a Buddha
necklace and then a paper (all in Thai) and then I think she told us
to visit the place indicated by the paper, but really who knows? It
was a great experience.

We got an ice cream and sat in the shade for a while, reading in the
guide book more about Buddhism and what different icons/symbols meant.
Apparently the Buddha image we just saw was in the pose where he is
striking down evil or temptation because his right hand's fingers were
pointing down (towards where Mara, the evil one, is). Interesting.
Next we retraced our steps in want of food. We decided to eat at the
mobile food stalls that had set up chairs and umbrellas, instead of
hitting up the classy restaurant. It took some finagling, but we
ordered pad khao muu (fried rice pork) for Robert and kway tiaw tom
pak (veggie noodle soup) for me. Spicy for Robert and no meat for me.
I also got a sapparot pan (pineapple shake), which came from the
vendor three spaces down, who I had declined earlier. All around, a
tasty delight, but a little too hot for the middle of the day.

We hopped a bus, this time for only 20B, back to the new city. Nothing
memorable that night, probably more street food. ;)

11-14-10: Pitsanulok to Sukothai

Today we completed our journey to Sukothai. We ate breakfast at the
Lithai Guesthouse because it was included in the price of our room!
That's right, we paid 350B for an air-con room with an en suite hot
water shower, tv and breakfast. It was a crazy good deal and an
excellent place to stay. Robert really liked his rice soup, but there
was some miscommunication with my order because I was given a giant
meat omelet on top of rice and a cup of meat broth (I tried to order
vegetable fried rice). I made a mini bowl of rice soup and had another
cup of coffee.

Next we had to find the bus to take us to Sukothai. We hoisted our
bags and set off. Our four year old guidebook had marked on the map
where to pick up the bus, but that's all we were going on. We got to
the place indicated by the map and didn't see a bus depot. At this
point we were ridiculously sweaty and walking up the shoulder of a
pretty major road, it seemed like we were completely lost and never
going to find the bus. Robert remembered a city bus stop that we
passed, so we backtracked to that. Just as we walked up, a bus
magically appeared, stopped and asked if we were headed to Sukothai.
We weren't as lost as we thought! (This is one of my favorite things
about traveling. Your fortunes can vacillate so widely, so quickly.
One minute you think you are going on a cheap tour of the city, the
next minute your driver is running a hard bargain scam. One minute you
think you are lost, the next minute you have the perfect bus
presenting itself for your convenience.)

We enjoyed the hour long ride in air conditioned heaven and got
dropped off at the bus depot outside of Sukothai proper. According to
our guidebook, you can walk from the bus depot to a few guesthouses if
you are willing. We were willing, so we found the small sign marking a
dirt trail leading off into the bush and happily walked that way. It
was basically boiling outside and quickly we had soaked our shirts for
a second time in one day. We found the first guesthouse very easily,
but the rooms were quite open and not so nice, so we opted to look
around a bit more before settling. The next guesthouse took forever to
find. The map we had was not complete and we got lost in a maze of
small side streets. Eventually we decided to just walk into town, as
opposed to continuing walking in circles. We found a landmark and then
were able to strike back out into the side streets again, this time
finding two guesthouses in quick succession. Either of these was
adequate, our opinions swayed by the heat I'm sure, but there was one
more nearby that had received excellent reviews on TravelFish, so we
opted to wander a little longer and check it out. We saw a sign and
followed it, but made a grave error halfway there that cost us about a
mile of extra walking. We gave up and turned around, only to discover
we had simply walked past the place without realizing what it was.
Their rooms were overpriced anyways, so we ended up back at 4T
Guesthouse.

This place was actually pretty nice for the price. 300B/night.
Internet. Private hot water shower. Nice restaurant to eat or hang out
in, which we did for a few hours, recovering from our trek through the
desert. The women in the kitchen were extremely helpful, correcting my
mispronunciations and offering new words to learn (kluay pan and
sapparot pan- banana shake and pineapple shake), yum! Sapparot was
definitely better than kluay.

Finally our core temperatures had cooled enough to stave off heat
stroke and we set out for town, getting directions to the post office
(ply-sanee) before we left. It only took asking three times and about
ten attempts at pronouncing the new word before we were understood.
Then the post office was closed. If you want a postcard, I'd be happy
to send you one, but you have to send me your street address as I have
none with me!

Next we wandered around the market streets. We split a crinkle-cut
cantaloupe, but was too shy to ask for the name in Thai. Then we found
the donut lady and she had Bavarian creme donuts! We got two,
retreated a few feet, discovered they were better than any other
Bavarian creme donut I have ever had and went back for more. We
eventually realized they were so tasty because they weren't deep
fried- they were just baked sweet bread, covered in powdered sugar.
Then we went across the street and got a kilo of lamut, alternately
called sapota or sapodilla in English. They were tasty. I think Robert
got some sausage, too. I love wandering around the markets here. Once
it got dark, we went in search of real food, sidewalk restaurant row.
The place we ate not only had cheap beer, they seemed to understand my
rendition of "vegetarian" and offered me a veggie dish. It was great.
(so great that I had it the next night too!) I think it was pad kee
mau, or called drunk noodles in the states, lovingly prepared sans
meaty bits.

Next, we moved on to a place called Chopper Bar. It is a
traveler-oriented bar, playing stereotypical classic rock, but with a
nice upstairs patio perfect for street watching. We played cards over
another beer. Robert now regrets teaching me his gin strategy as he no
longer wins every hand! poor kid. Then back to the guesthouse for
sleeps. All in all, a long day, but better than most travel days.

Sukothai: I got all nervous when buying the fruit and forgot to take a picture, so we went back later to take his picture. I just noticed that he dropped his price; we paid 15B for our kilo.

Sukothai: This is a sapota or also called a lamut, by book says it is called a sapodilla in English, but that sounds Spanish to my ear. Not sure if it is native here or where else's they grow, but I haven't had them before. You eat them with their sk

Phitsanulok: Robert got attacked by a rooster, but is recovering.

Ayuttaya: Here is Mushroom Soup Man, selling the tastiest soup at the market. (mushroom= het)

Ayuttaya: Here is a stone head of one of the decapitated Buddhas. It got suck in this tree's roots. If you want to take a picture with it, you have to squat so you are respectfully lower than Buddha.

Ayuttaya: We visited Wat Mahathat and thoroughly enjoyed walking among the ruins. This was one of two Buddhas with heads intact, probably they were restored after the Burmese ransacked the place many centuries ago.

Bangkok: I am eating sour green mango on a side-street near Khao San Road. It should be eaten with sugar-chili sprinkle, but I didn't like the chili powder this vendor used, so I ate it alone. It is about as sour as Sour Patch Kids, enough to make yo

Bangkok: We also visited Wat Pho, where the Reclining Buddha reclines. This is not a close-up, mind you.

Bangkok: Ok. Maybe it was at my insistence that we mime the statues. There are serious pictures too, but these are more fun.

Bangkok: We visited the Grand Palace of the King and Queen and tried not to be too sacrilegious, but Robert insisted on miming the statues.

Bangkok: This is a tuk-tuk. They are mini-taxis, known to aggressively offer rides to and sometimes try to scam tourists. "hello. Where you go?"