Day 5: Phitsanulok to Sukothai

Distance biked: 64.69 kms / 40.2 miles
Time on the road: 3:04
Total Distance biked: 444.5 kms / 276.2 miles
Total time on the road: 21:00

Ok, quick update tonight - not much time left at the cafe and I've got to go pack for my early morning ride. The trip from Phitsanulok to Sukothai was a short one but because I got a late start that morning it was one of the hottest days yet for me. I've learned that the difference between getting on the road at 6:30AM and 9:30AM is huge. I can usually cover a good 35 miles in the first 3 hours of riding if I start early when the sun is low and air is still cool. If I wait until 9:30 that means I'm biking my first hours through the hottest part of the day. It pays to get going early.

I had to stop many times during the 65 kilometers to Sukothai. Luckily there are petrol stations about every 10 kilometers and lots of little roadside stands selling iced coke in between. At around noontime the sun was out in full force and I actually started to feel chilly which I decided wasn't a good thing so I pulled into a petrol station to find some shade and cool water. Through these pit stops I've learned the Thai word for hot - "lorn" - because everytime I pull into a station the attendants invariably will come over to me and ask me in Thai if it's "lorn" out there on the road. It's sometimes hard for me to communicate for the first few minutes because of how hot I'm feeling and how much the sweat is pouring off of me but eventually I get around to chatting with them and telling them where I'm headed. After sitting in shade for 30 minutes drinking cold water and sticking my head under the faucet I'll shove off and go as far as I can until I need to pull over again. It makes for slow going sometimes but it's really the only way to do it at this time of year.

So originally I was going to just spend the night in Sukothai, skip all the ruins and the ancient city and bike again the next morning. But the guest house I'm staying at - Ban Thai Guesthouse - has a nice, homey feel to it and I realized that it was kind of ridiculous for me to come all the way to Thailand and not spend any time visiting its historic sites. So I booked a room for two nights and pushed my departure back to Thursday morning.

At the guesthouse I got talking to a Canadian guy named Sean about his travels and what his travel plans are. He'll be touring around Thailand for the next few weeks - up to Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and then all the way down to the southern islands and then later will cross into China. He's been on the road since January. We decided to explore the city a bit that night and had some good food from the street vendors and delicious Thai desserts.

This morning we set out for Old Sukothai on our bikes - me on mine and him on a rented one from our guesthouse. We visited some really beautiful and impressive structures. You can see the influence from many different cultures in the buildings. Some Khmer temples that existed in the area were simply taken over by the Sukothai people and converted into Buddhist wats with viharns (worship halls) slapped on to them. It's really interesting to look closely and see where different cultures meet - mixing and blending into one another - in the stone, brick and mortar.

On our way back from Old Sukothai the clouds started darkening and a major storm was brewing in the west. We decided to chance it and just as the first few drops began falling we took off for our guesthouse with 14 kilometers ahead of us. We rode hard the whole way back to the new town with the storm right on our tails and lightning and thunder all around us. We were going a good 19 kilometers an hour and the storm must have been progressing at 18. We were lightly rained on the whole way back but as soon as we pulled into the guesthouse driveway and were under the cover of the restaurant the skies opened up and down came the rain in floods.

Tomorrow I'm off for Dong Ya Thao, a tiny little town on my map at the intersection of routes 11 and 101. It's not in my guidebook and I'm pretty certain it's nothing more than small little village and there won't be any hotels. As Megan says, maybe they'll at least have a tennis court.