June in Thailand: Sukhothai

Sukhothai itself is so big that unless it’s a whirlwind tour, there’s no way of doing it in one day. Tom and I took two days to check out selected temples. Some beauties were in the central area, like this one so reminiscent of Angkor Wat.

It was fantastic how the structure still remained and the hedge and grass was so beautifully manicured. I’m not sure if it’s an accurate reconstruction but it sure does look grand this way!

Further along in the Sukhothai complex was this delightfully concealed Buddha image which you could only see through a slit in the surrounding wall. There were quite a few obstacles in the line of sight and only from certain special angles could I get a picture.

And only right at the base of the Buddha could I get a good shot at the entire statue. Here Tom and Erico show exactly how big the statue is.

As usual, the elegant tapered fingers of the Buddha are testament to the skill of the craftsmen who created it.

And here we are going up to the last part of complex. The clouds were gathering and Erico still gamely soldiered on. Tom and I met Erico the day before when he stopped us and asked for directions. We fell into conversation and bonded over food at the Sukhothai Food Festival. We continued on together for a few days after that. It was good fun to have another friend on the adventure!

This last stop was a rather dilapidated Buddha image on the top of the hill. The standing Buddha looked like it had not only seen better days, it’d probably seen much worse ones in storms too! Its charred -looking body made me think it’d been struck once too many times by lightning.

One of the Buddha images on its side was in slightly better shape. I like how the gilding on its lips still remained, making it look incongruously made up.

And that was us on the top of the hill before the storm broke: a Brazilian, a Brit and a Singaporean enjoying a Thai adventure.

We made it back to shelter just in time. The storm broke over us as we enjoyed our lunch of pad thai and my favourite pad kapow (stir-fried pork with holy basil). After the storm was done, we wandered around some more and enjoyed the lovely dusk over Sukhothai.

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June in Thailand: Si Satchanalai’s Main Complex

We followed the track from Chaliang to the main complex at Si Satchanalai, passing by some private houses and a gate post that stuck to the theme of the area.

Si Satchanalai was more park than ruin, with lovely paths leading here and there, plus some formidable flights of stairs that took so much out of us that we couldn’t do photos. At the top of one such hill was a temple ruin. The Buddha image looked like it used to be housed under a roof and still had pillars surrounding it. Even though there was a brick stairway leading up here, the trees growing thickly round made it feel like a chance finding.

Again, the Buddha image was much venerated despite its age and exposure to the elements. The cloth draping seemed to have been recently changed.

Further along from the first image, the trees thinned out somewhat and we came across a stupa and the forlorn remains of a little  temple.

There were some very badly weathered Buddha images, some still venerated fairly recently as seen from the scraps of faded now dun-coloured cloth still clinging on to the image.

Others were in even worse off shape and looked like they’d been in retirement for a hundred years at least.

We stopped for a while to marvel how such a temple with two stupas could be built at the top of the steep hill. It must have taken lots of hard labour for the stones to be carted up and assembled to form such grand structures.

Standing right at the top, we took in the lovely greenery below: of trees and the occasional stupa poking out in between. It was such a peaceful and serene sight.

Back on lower ground, there were much more extensive structures, this time more of a holy city than simple temple. This one below had a Buddha image flanked by great serpents, which I liked a lot. There was something somewhat contradictory about the serenity of Buddha and the venomous snake juxtaposed that appealed to me.

In these ruins, we noticed that new inhabitants had replaced the ancient humans. These brothers were rather shy.

But one of them was braver than the other…

… and came right up to check us out. He allowed Tom just one quick pat.

And one pat was all. They allowed us a celebrity photo of them posing nicely.

And then we were left to ponder the ancients on our own.

June in Thailand: Food Festival and Other Sukhothai Eats

Tom and I pulled into Sukhothai in the evening and we settled into a charming guesthouse (that would later steal money from the stash we put in safekeeping with them, unfortunately). We wandered out onto the street looking for food and chanced upon a banner advertising the Sukhothai Food Festival. It was just on the opposite side of the river from our guesthouse and nicely within walking distance. The place was bustling but not too crowded, just right for soaking in the atmosphere yet getting our food with no problem.

There was loads of stuff on offer, from salads and fish cakes to rice with dishes and plenty of fruit and desserts. Here was where I introduced Tom to the joys of rambutan and my favourite, mangosteen. But let me show you just the highlights. I particularly liked the salt grilled river fish. The tilapia-like fish was coated generously in salt and grilled over a charcoal fire. When it’s on the plate, just lift off the skin, scales and salt and all. The interior is steaming hot and incredibly juicy, heavenly with the spicy lime and chilli dipping sauce.

Then there were the grilled jumbo-sized prawns. Oh my, how fresh and succulent and good these babies were. It was Tom’s first time eating proper prawns, so I taught him how: grab and pull off the head, being careful not to let the juices dribble out, then quickly suck out the brains; peel carapace off body section by section, dip in sauce and devour. There’s something just so magical about charred crustacean. Like my prawns, I lost my head and blew my daily budget getting more. I’d just have to eat less the next day. (As if.)

The most fascinating thing I saw of the festival was this dessert stand. It made gossamer-thin pancakes, even thinner than paper-thin, somewhat like Singaporean popiah skins. With the pancakes came a bundle of coloured spun sugar, a bit like cotton candy. Eat by rolling sugar in pancake then popping in mouth. It was a great dessert and we stood for ages at the stand, mesmerised by the deft twirlings of the chef slapping dough ball on hot slab to make perfectly round pancakes in perfect timing.

The food festival was so good we went there two nights in a row, but of course that’s not all we saw of Sukhothai cuisine. I read in the guidebook of a place that specialised in Sukhothai kway tiew noodles. It took little coercion to get Tom in on the hunt and after one failed attempt (it was closed), we sat down to two variations of the exceptionally thin flat rice noodles. The first was a bowl of scalded noodles with toppings, somewhat like the Vietnamese noodle salad bun thit nuong. It had bits of boiled pork, deep fried wanton skin, chai poh (preserved turnip), grated peanut, beans and herbs, all topped with lime and fish sauce. The medley of flavours was refreshing and a delicious change from the usual soup noodles or fried noodles.

Speaking of which, the fried version was very yummy too, thanks to the generous sprinkling of deep fried lard over it. It was somewhat like pad thai minus the ketchup and shrimp. While both were delicious, I think the unfried version was slightly more unique.

Stomachs sated, we were satisfied enough to head out to the attractions of Sukhothai.