Day 11 - 8th December

Today we get up and head to a local cafe for breakfast...
There are five cafés all in a row next to our hostel... They pretty much have the same menus, table chairs and general decor and the Thai girls working within them all sound the same... We go to the same one we ended up in last night and have our old faithful for breakfast... Today I'm feeling fine... Shiree.. Not so much, but being up and about is making her feel more alive again.
This hostel is a larger complex than previous and has a bed made from granite... It's also a little noisier, but this is mainly due to our location within the hostel.
The hostels location is excellent for us.. Its in old Sukhothai which has a huge amount of historic value to the Thais...
We learn here that Sukhothai was actually Thailand's first capital city founded by two Generals, not Ayutthaya as I previously stated. Ayutthaya then became the second, then the wet lands of Bangkok followed by its current position in Bangkok..... If there's any more capitals I'll give up !
The whole of old Sukhothai appears on a map to be a square walled city, but we've seen no wall as of yet... Within the central area of Sukhothai lies the majority of the old empire which is now a World Heritage Site. It's also directly opposite our hostel and after hiring some old bikes we head off in the direction of the entrance... Its 100b each to enter which is £1.89
It's the best £1.89 either of us have ever spent... The place is absolutely stunning... The Thais built pretty much all the old temples and Buddhas out of brick and rendered them in concrete. Most of the render on the temples has now come off to revel the dark red brickwork beneath but the Buddhas have either been restored some time ago or were protected by the temples which now lie in ruin for long enough during attack to protect them...
Either way.... As we travel around Thailand you see the same pattern... Buildings in ruin containing Buddhas in good condition, with the exception of a minority which have been beheaded....
We cycle around this park in amazement at how pretty it is... The land doesn't appear to of been touched in years. There are numerous huge, perfectly square lakes, lined by perfectly straight palm trees which must be 40ft high on gently sloping banks of cut green grass....the trees reflections lay over perfectly still water, casting some much needed shade to dozens and dozens of large pink lotus flower heads that sit amongst the Lotus leaves...all very much like our water Lillie's only on a much grander scale. Only the busy water boatmen or occasional fish feeding on them create any kind of disturbance...
This is the most tranquil place on earth... It's almost silent and pretty much motionless. Its upkeep is typically Thai too.. If they want something to look perfect then there very capable of archiving it, and they clearly do here....
We spent most of the day here just riding around, stopping to taking photos and allowing enough time to taking it all in...
In the evening we head out to the street markets in search of food.
There are loads of stalls offering food and we decide on one stall selling prices of meat that have been pushed between a price of wood that's been split in too in the middle... This is how the meat is cooked, sold and eaten and it looks great.... "Chicken" the guy says as we pay for one that's just been lifted off the cooking coals.... Great I thought... I like chicken as we walk away...
Humm.... Bit boney I thought as I offer some to Shiree... She has I little nibble and hands it back without much interest in having anymore...
I'd wanted one of this meat sticks for a while so I persevere longer as shirees looking at some other good stalls, but after a while I start giving some to a local dog that has come over to make friends...... He's been trying really hard to look like a nice clean dog and failing miserably but when he sits down I decide he's tried hard enough and start giving him the meat instead... I'm fed up of the tiny bones in every mouth full.. Then the penny dropped... These bones were far to small, and far to plentiful to be chicken.....
Whatever it was, it was small and the dog loved it... I'd made a friend for life that night.
We then head back to one of the five cafés for some proper food before bed....