Just like in parts of Europe, May is a month with a lot of public holidays in Thailand. This year, 1, 5 and 8 May were holidays so ideal for a weekend excursion. We used the opportunity to go to the ancient capital of Sukhothai, a few hundred km north of Bangkok. Attentive readers will remember that we already went to Ayutthaya, another former capital. Sukhothai is older and is also spread out over a larger area than the temple ruins in Ayutthaya. About 50km away, there is another impressive remnant of the past: the ruins of the ancient city Si Santachalai, also part of the Sukhothai kingdom. We took an internal flight with Christophe & Sylvie, another Belgian couple in Bangkok (Christophe is a colleague of Nirmala). The weather was very hot on Friday but we rented some bicycles to drive around the Sukhtothai National Park to visit the highlights. On Saturday, we had rented a car to go to Si Santachalai where we were surprised by a tropical thunderstorm while visiting the first temple. The rainy season has started in earnest now and we get impressive "sound & light" shows on an almost daily basis. We even got a few very grey and rainy days in Bangkok, a bit like in Belgium only warmer.
A small PS for those interested in Thai history: here is a link to an interesting article which recently appeared in the Thai English language newspaper "Bangkok Post". A historian has suggested to change the name of the country back to Siam in the name of national reconciliation:
http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/16824/what-s-in-a-name/
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