Ted (Thailand) : Two Old Capitals

So I basically became bored with Chiang Mai, which definitely lacks the entertainment potential of all of your European cities. So I moved south to two of Thailand's old capitals, Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. Chiang Mai was the former capital of the Lanna Thai Kingdom, but Sukhothai and especially Ayutthaya were precedessors to the modern Thai state.

I stayed in New Sukhothai, which is predictably very close to old Sukhothai. Sukhothai was a Khmer (Cambodian) city for a while before establishing its own kingdom in the 13th century. Later it declined, and Ayuthaya reigned as a properous capital when London was a shack town (or so people like to say), before being brutally sacked by the Burmese in the 18th century. Both are UNESCO world heritage sites, and full of huge monuments and temples (the only structures made out of stone in pre-modern Thailand). Old Sukhothai was all by its lonesome, but old Ayutthaya is surrounded by modern buildings and roads.

All in all, both places are breathtaking with some temples in good enough shape to see the excellent craftsmanship of statues, buddhas and decorations. It's crazy to imagine all of the ruins when they were new, brightly painted, and surrounded by religious devotees. Thailand is 95% Buddhist now, and was probably even more so back then. I'm glad I was never a Thai king, having to do a million different rituals, like dancing on an elephant...or just having to ride on an elephant for hours and hours which I hear is terrible.

Right now I'm looking forward to a lot of wandering and being a general lost farang. Some of my recent Thai encounters.

-A middle aged man asked me to take a picture with him, and called me very handsome.
-A gaggle of middle aged women surrounded me, called me and my skin beautiful, and then compared me to a guava since the word for foreigner and guava are the same, oh how funny ... how do I make a disgruntled face?
-Shook hands with some random politician
-Met an overweight Thai guy with a sideways pony tail, make-up and his best girlish voice. I always get nervous when the lady boys ask me where I'm going.

So travel plans, off to Kanchanburi to see Thailand's largest waterfall, learn about the death railway built by the japanese during WW2 using POWs,and to take some cooking lessons. And then Khon Kaen (maybe see kira?), Nong Khai, and then into Laos to putz around. Yes, I've basically left academics behind, which is both great and terrible.

Everyone's travels sound amazing, and I'm pretty much equally jealous of all of them.

-Ted