Last night we walked down toward the Ping River to a recommended restaurant "Just Khao Soi". Khao soi is a spicy curried broth with wheat noodles that's a regional dish in the Chiang Mai area. Really good food.
The place mat explained how to use all the different spices and condiments. They were all arrayed on an artist's palette. The idea is that you mix up what suits you as an individual. If you overdo it, there's a little dish of sliced banana to nibble to cure an overheated mouth. Banana or rice works way better than water to soothe your palate if you spice your food too much.
After dinner we walked back to our hotel through the massive Night Bazaar. There are permanent shops and temporary street vendors all open for business from 7 pm to midnight in a large area around one intersection and some back alleys. We didn't buy but anything you could want was available. As we walked up Loi Kroh street back to our hotel there were lots of little bars with live music and live companionship.We didn't buy there either but these walks are always entertaining.
This morning after breakfast we checked out and took a tuktuk, after negotiation, to the bus station. The seats in the tuktuks in Chiang Mai are higher and if you're the least bit taller it's really hard to see out under the canopy. I saw lots of people from the waist down along the way but we got to the bus station with no problem.
There are also lots of sorngtau in Chiang Mai. Sorngtau translates literally as "2 seats" because there are 2 side benches along the back of these red pickup trucks. They cruise around town and pick people up who are heading in the same general direction,delivering them here and there for a negotiated price.
Our bus to Sukhothai wasn't bad but it wasn't exactly new. It had cushioned seats and AC but Anita's seat was broken and we kept having to fix it up plus lots of other parts inside were in disrepair. The whole way here, we really had little idea of where we were. Like Cambodia and Laos, Thailand uses its own alphabet so we can't read any signs. However, we were actually quite comfortable on the bus and the Thai highways that we've seen so far are like highways in southern Ontario. Luckily, after 5 hours, a man got on who was trying to rent rooms in guesthouses in New Sukhothai so he told us when to get out for Old Sukhothai. The two towns are about 20 minutes apart. Somehow, even though it seems chaotic, the people running things actually know what they're doing and everything works out just fine.
Anyway, we got to town, got a tuktuk for a set price of 50 baht (about $1.70) and got a little out of town to our guesthouse, the Thai Thai Sukhothai Guesthouse. It's quite nice here but it's on the edge of town so we have to tuktuk back in to find restaurants. We did that for dinner but weren't paying too much attention in the heat and humidity and ended up in a restaurant that, in hindsight, might not have been the best choice. It tasted good (lots of MSG likely) and was reasonably priced but we were a little nervous about the hygiene. Deep frying and drinking alcohol should keep us safe.
We've booked a tuktuk for 4 hours tomorrow for the big tour of the old ruined city of Sukhothai. This was the centre of a kingdom for about 150 years in the middle ages and there's a huge historical park here now that's a world heritage site. Sukhothai literally translates as "Rising Happiness". (I have no opinion.)
Tomorrow should be fun but really hot so we're going to do most of our touring in the morning, as usual. We're only 300 km south of Chiang Mai, which was hot, but this is hotter and much more humid. A lot of people rent bicycles to tour the ruins. The heck with that.
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