Ayutthaya-->Sukothai-->Chiang Mai

Sa wha dee ka! I am in love with this country. Alex and I took a very regional train out of Bangkok on Saturday morning. Wooden seats and we just kept stopping and accruing people. I was hoping that getting out of Bangkok would mean getting out of the pollution...Little did I know, this was not the case. The woman sitting opposite me kept dumping trash out the window. To put it lightly, this is the social norm. Everything is served on styrofoam and given to you in plastic bags. I've been refusing the plastic bags and people seem alarmed. So strange. Anyway, getting out of the city was nice. The train had vendors, I bought thai iced tea:) The windows were open the whole time and Alex noticed ash blowing in every once in a while. Good thing I don't smoke in real life, because the air here is putting years of smoke into my lungs...:(

We stopped in Ayutthaya which was the first capital in Thailand. There is a famous UNESCO Heritage ruin Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya. It was really neat to see. We rented bikes and honestly, probably one of the scariest bike rides of my life. In traffic, on the left side, because that's where they drive here, no helmets (they don't have them...even most motorbikers don't wear them...). Anyway, we survived. It gave us LOTS of adrenaline at least:) The town itself was pretty slow and our hostel had a HUGE dog and toasted smiley faces onto our toast:) see flickr. After that we took a really nice VIP-Super bus to Sukothai. It was just like South America, in that we got a little man servant who gave us food and checked tickets. We made a 20 minute stop after a few hours to use a restroom etc and then it was "SURPRISE FOOD!!" If you turned in your ticket stub, they gave you a plate of rice and thai dish of your choosing. SO amazing. When in Thailand, spend the extra 100 baht=$3 on random food stops, cokes on the bus, and a box of identifiable bad food...Sukothai was a much more happening town than Ayutthaya. We stayed in a very nice guesthouse across from a Buddhist monastery. Evidently, this is the monastery where monks go to "vacation." It was beautiful. We fed fish with the monks in their lake completely full of fish, unlike anything I've ever seen--Alex and I were "married," logically, because traveling in mixed gender groups in Asia unmarried is not ok. It's kind of hilarious to be pretend married. HA! We rented bikes again and while cheaper, they were TERRIBLE bikes. Thus, we decided to go for a 50km bike ride...poor decision in 38 C heat...on bad bikes. However, we saw TONS of ruins and wats (temples). The Sukothai historical park was neat because it part of it is maintained and part isn't (also UNESCO). You can see what time does to history. This park probably had the best stuff I've seen so far from the 14th century. Make sure you go!

What else? We just arrived in Chiang Mai. Took about a 5 hour bus to get here. Frolicked around all afternoon. Chiang Mai has MUCH worse air pollution than Bangkok. Chiang Mai is really nice so far though. Full of tourists, which is disgustingly refreshing after having been the only white people for 5 days. There have been a lot of street dogs lately, in Sukothai there were some in very sad states, but on the whole it's been glorious to have animals in my life again.
Ok, so much more to say, but out of time! Leaving for the jungle for 3 days on Thursday! Cannot wait! Alex convinced me to start malaria pills a few days ago. So far, so good. Also, his blog is MUCH more detailed, so I'd recommend it!
Love,
Lauren