vinapu

and here from central zone of Kamphaeng Phet includin "lion of Kampheang Phet" below

and here from Kamphaeng Phet "outside of the centre" zone

Day 17 Kamphaeng Phet I woke up at 8 , no rush since driver was supposed to show at 9. About quarter before that we met in front on my hotel wondering if he will show up at all ( remember we paid in full) only to discover that car parked aside is one which will be taking us there. It’s about 80 Km so it took slightly above 1 hour to get there. There are 2 complexes of ruins – to the north of the center which we visited first and compound in the very center where beside ruins there’s neat museum we visited as well. Admission here is 150 to each of two parts of ruins and 150 to museum as well. Equally impressive ruins as those at Sukhotai also not coverings as vast territory and by every mean worth of travel there even from Bangkok , ,not just from Sukhotai. Kamphaeng Phet may be good breaking point between capital and Chiang Mai as it’s exactly mid way. Early afternoon we were back in Sukhotai , as we were hungry we wnet to eat something right away and chicken with nuts was even better than one yesterday for only 2/3 of price. Then we went to museum in Sukhotai, quite interesting but on human scale. Then K went for massage and I went to survey temple near hotel not even shown on the map I got in the hotel and from there on other side of road I spotted another , also unmarked ruin so went to explore it as well, it was start darkening when I went back to the room . here are some pick of that 'forgotten ' temple: At 20.00 we repeated yesterday’s routine with stroll to the center and banana pancake for supper. Returning to the hotel I thought that actually tomorrow I could start that sightseeing all over again. I have strong suspicion it was not my last trip to Sukhotai. In the hotel I ordered van to the airport for our early morning flight for K and me at 350 per person.

and sadly so are guys playing music at Banteai Samre temple. Still it's only a shade of what one could see in 2001

correct. Only thing we tend to forget is that while we see final product sometimes it took dozens of years or even generations before final shape of what we marvel at was achieved. In absence of Netlix and Facebook ancients has a lot of time

you are correct but in Sukhotai there were neither during my stay or at least I did no notice any

that will not necessarily be good news as often replacing one autocrat or dictator with another one results in more mayhem. Generally speaking we should remember that for tourists brutal military dictatorship is safest place to travel as everybody is under the boot, crooks too. Unfortunately Americans may feel as exempted from this rule in some places due to bargaining chip danger mentioned above

Western Zone, lady on the last picture is not my friend K, just stranger she simply ignored fact that I'm trying to make picture standing there and checking Facebook or whatever so as penalty is is immortalized here :

Iconic Wat Si Chum in Northern Zone with 15m tall Buddha

Temples of Northern Zone

Few more:

In order not to have post too long I decided to post pictures in a separate threads. Here are temples of Central zone:

Day 16 Sukhotai ruins K and I decided to start early to avoid much of heat , at least in some monuments although it needs to be said that weather was extremely co-operative during out time in Sukhotai and it did not feel lie Thailand at all. Balmy 24 – 25 , that’s all. On another hand place is quite vast and if one needs to avoid heat is to come back to hotel and take airconditioned nap. Fortunately not necessary for us. There are basically three zones of sites, Central , Northern and Western, each requiring separate 100 baht ticket as well as 10 baht bicycle ticket as well. They did not charge us for bicycles at western zone. We had our breakfasts at 7 am and then I rented bicycle in my hotel, K opted for rental place nearby and we moved to central zone with Wat Mahatat first, son after site was opened. It needs to be said that while not overwhelmed if was quite populated by tourists , both individual and on tours. Temples on all three zones are quite close to each other but still not adjacent so walking would be way too demanding and cycling is ideal, Hence abundance of bicycle rental places. Some sophisticated tourists may opt for electric cart , with or without guide. There is some shade but a lot of ruins are in the open , there are places o the way where one can buy some drinks but as for temple sites themselves only most popular Si Chum has proper facilities with stores and toilets. Good news is while spread out sites are still quite close to the city so if one feels tired , returning to hotel is fairly easy. Some temples in the western zone require a bit of climb, definitely worth it in any case we went up. All in, that is very pleasant , interesting and easy ‘to do’ site and easily few days can be spend there exploring what’s available. Some smallish temples are not even on the map I attached for day 15. I.e. next day we noticed that there are ruins of temple in close vicinity to our hotels not even shown on the said map . When I went there , another ruins appeared in the trees across the road, also not on the map I estimate we visited today about 20 and on our way to them passed by another 15 without stopping there . Around 16.00 ( remember we started at about 7.30 ) I felt dehydrated and suggested we call today’s part off to which K agreed so we pedaled back to the city where we stopped for a meal, mine of course was chicken with cashew nuts, bit spicy there and costing twice as much as in restaurant we were dining lest evening. Tourist zone , tourist prices. Eariler , while on the way we discussed about plan for tomorrow as we had either Kamphean Phet or Si Satchanalai. Not feasible to do both as they are in opposite directions and by the way Si Satchanalai is relatively close to the Sukhotai airport. We settled on Kampheang Phet and stopped at the travel office on our way to see what price may be. Offer was 1500 for car with driver, bit cheaper than hotel offered so we agreed right away and even broke rules and paid for it right away asking driver to be at the hotel at 9.00. Finally around 6 pm we landed back in hotels and after bit of rest went back to the city to check night market where I had 2 banana pancakes for 30 baht each. While waiting for first to be prepared some French tourists took an interest in trying , then somebody else and it looked I made lady very busy all of the sudden. I was victim of that success as was forced to wait for 2nd one to be prepared such was a line. While day was pleasant , night was even more , hell with mosquitos , geckos , cobras and lions, I decided to sleep with open patio door and as we can see , survived to tell the tale.

Old Sukhotai is rather small place and most hotels there are rather close , at least to central zone.

as you can see, I'm on the move constantly. Don't you know me already?

...like Finland or Sweden

I have my doubt about Phuket being there as well as Hoi An but have well travelled friend who considers Hoi An quintessence of Asia so let it stay on the list

there's something in it, I noticed in recent months people making similar gestures where I live and in most cases they did not look oriental at all

+1

Day 15 , off to Sukhotai No rush morning , we went for breakfast quite late, again no problem with guest as my reservation was for two as always. My flight to Sukhotai was at 15.30 from Swampy so no rush checking out , in fact I did it exactly at 12. 00 , by the book. Since it was domestic flight I had plenty of time at the airport where K joined me in the waiting area.. Bangkok Airways is only airline flying there with 2 flights a day I either direction , one in the morning and another one in the afternoon. Ticket was roughly 100$ return and flight was by turboprop , it took about 70 minutes to get there but Bangkok Airways being ‘Asia’s boutique airline” as they put in their commercials treated us with full meal. This is what I saw from my window seat Sukhotai is cute small airport as one can imagine with just 2 landings and take offs a day but has all necessary amenities traveler may need including restaurant , gift shop, public toilets and for those bored waiting for their flight mini Zoo right beside and exhibition of live size dinosaurs in front of the airport complex. There were taxis , public bus to New Sukhotai for 18 baht and well as door r to door van, option we opted for at 300 baht per person. Since its about 30 km to Old Sukhotai where ruins are it took about 1 hr to get there and it was getting dark already when we arrived. My hotel of choice was Thai Thai, highly recommended place of bungalows in the garden at 1200 a night. My friend decided on going bit to late but his hotel turned out to be immediately across the street or rather small side alley we were delivered to. Nice touch on check in was that I got all information I possibly could look for in print. Where are stops for local busses and their prices, cost of renting bicycles or cars for sightseeing, price list for private tours to nearby attractions of Kamphaeng Phet and Si Satchanalai-Chaliang historical parks. Location of the pool and local restaurants it was all there and also information about option how to get back to the airport. I even commented – you answered all my questions before I managed to ask them which was exactly what happened. To top it up I got also very handy map of local attractions attached here ( keep in mind is not up to scale ). After settling in , K and I went to the center for a dinner and ice cream from 7/11, walked along local night market , localized entry to central complex and returned to our room for well deserved rest before tomorrow’s expected sightseeing onslaught.

that is sad but very common part of living in 21st century

welcome to the forum, thank you for report and we hope for more impressions reported

first one returned after some absence as I had pleasure to meet him there in the past

while not questioning your and professor's findings I's like to bring to your and everybody else's attention fact that those youngsters will be paying us a pensions and placing us in nursing homes they will run so be nice to them. I, being also of proper age, remember when we kids start switching to ball pens from ordinary , ink feeded ones , that was supposed to crook both of our characters and our limbs, we were supposed to get blind from watching 'Bonanza ' on TV, using make up was sure thing to turn our classmates girls tnto hookers and other horrors which never materialized. It was neatly summarized by my godmother who commented when I was about 30 ' I was thinking big zero will grow of you but now look !" . Travelling on underground recently I noticed that it was mostly younger people who were immersed in paperbacks and newspapers while us oldies were exclusively on our phones, fact that was also noticed and commented but soccer-mom type lady standing beside .

terrible part of history is not chasing you there, it's not like skulls are strewn all over the place. In fact only thing which may remind you about horrors are tour vans and busses with '" Killing Fileds" signs. As I mentioned people maimed by mines are very rate sight those days. Glorious part of history ie Angkor ruins are easy to explore with good infrastructure, surely with bit of walking involved but surely rewarding and easy to get to. 1 hr flight from Bangkok and one is there. Take you know whom and go