Cycling 'round Sukothai

On our way out of Lopburi, we met our first travel friends, Luca and Guy.  Our itineraries were aligned through Chiang Mai, where they would turn south for the beaches.  Luca was a chef from Italy, and had recently left his work in Australia.  Guy, from France, had worked jobs in communications and as a bicycle mechanic in Canada.  We all stayed at the 4T guesthouse in Sukothai, and visited the historical park the next day.  

This Unesco World Heritage site is home to  hundreds of ruins scattered about well-maintained park grounds.  There are actually three different areas to visit, each with its own admission fee.  We opted to only see the central park area, which contained more than enough ruins for our taste.  The most impressive of these is Wat Mahathat, located in the center of said central zone.

  Next on our tour was Wat Si Sawai, a smaller temple with three prangs and a partial moat.

There was a rather interesting tree here...

Unfortunately, The remainder of the park was relatively unremarkable, especially considering we saw Wat Mahathat first.  The grounds were full of peaceful reservoirs.  What is not pictured here are the local Thais wading in the water for what we think were snails or mussels...curious.

After the park, we made for some food and a Chang.  At this restaurant we had an interesting discussion with a drunk English man (it was just past noon...) who lived in Sukothai for several months of the year. He raved about how the historical park was far too "touristic," while Chiang Mai was far too commercial, where you couldn't possibly find a Chang for under 120 bhat! (not actually true, as we would soon find out).