A breath of fresh air in Sukhoti

Sunday morning we happily headed out of Bangkok on a VIP bus. As far as we can tell, VIP busses aren't any more comfortable than first class busses, but we did get to watch a couple of hours of Thai music videos. They all seemed to be men singing about having their heart broken by women. One even took place in a hospital room, with a half dozen female nurses examining and treating the studly lead singer. According to the x-rays, he was suffering from a broken heart. Literally. When they performed the surgery, all they found when they opened him up was a slew of pictures of his lost love. Then he died. And then we saw two dozen more videos almost exactly like that one.

As I mentioned in the last post, this bus ride and our guest house in Sukhoti were booked by the sleezy travel agent we never wanted to visit in the first place, so we were pretty nervous. I started feeling better once the guy actually picked us up in the morning to take us to the bus terminal, but Adina wasn't satisfied until we got to the guest house. Lucky for the travel agent, it was quite nice. Otherwise, she'd have been on the business end of a pretty nasty phone call. The place was a bit removed from the main drag of town so it was quiet, very clean, the AC worked, the "lobby" area was really relaxing with good books and charming though unbearably uncomfortable hammocks, and the staff was super friendly, mildly helpful, and spoke passable English. And after a while you get used to accidentally stepping on toads on the way back to your bungalow.

Sunday afternoon we rented a motor-bike (like father like son) and scooted off to Sukhoti Historical Park, a beautiful set of "ancient" ruins of what was once the capital of the area. Unlike the ruins of Rome, though, everything is the same. At some point I'll get an explanation as to why they needed a half dozen temples in the same complex. Gorgeous grounds, quiet, peaceful, and relaxing. A far cry from the sqawking touts of Bangkok. In the morning we scooted off to Sri Satchanalai Historical Park, about an hour of windy country roads and Adina struggling to adjust to riding on the left side of the road. Especially funny because I was the one driving and only forgot to look in the right direction before pulling into oncoming traffic once. This park was more of the same same, but a little different. Less manicured, more wooded and secluded. Equally beautiful and relaxing. Many people fly from Bangkok to Chang Mai and skip over this part of the country, but if you ever plan on taking the bus through, I'd definitely recommend taking a day to explore these parks. In the evening we had a nice beer with a German university student who got super apologetic about making a crowded cattle car joke to us. We assured him that the joke was neither funny nor offensive, but he felt real bad, he was especially nervous about giving us the wrong impression about how seriously Germans take the whole thing. I suppose Chillul Hashem is a universal concept. I told him if wants some good holocaust humor, he should check out The Onion. Now that I think about it, I should have made him pay for the beer. It seems like the least he can do, right?

Today we took another marathon bus ride to Chang Mai, where we were pleased to learn the climate has changed from oppressively hot and humid to unoppressively hot and humid. At least for today. Even though it's the second biggest city in Thailand, Chang Mai feels nothing like Bangkok and we're excited to spend some time here next week. Tomorrow we head out on a three day 'trek' through the hill tribes of the jungle. Then it's back to Chang Mai for Shabbat.

Bye for now!