Sa-wat-dee from Sukhothai! That's right, we've finally learned how to say hello in Thai. It turns out (or so our hill tribe trek guide said in Chiang Mai) that men, women and lady boys each say it differently. So it's Sa-wat-dee Ka for Nat, and Sa-wat-dee Crad for Bret. (Lady boys say the same as women, only much higher and squeakier….)

Back in Chiang Mai we weren't able to book a bus ticket to Sukhothai in advance, so we tried our luck at turning up at the bus station and hoping for the best. We managed to get on the first bus of the day, and enjoyed our five hour ride here to Sukhothai. The bus was comfortable, with air conditioning and a stop every one and a half hours for food and drink. The snack of choice here seems to be grilled tofu or chicken on skewers, no matter what time of day. Locals buy it from street stalls, and then carry it around in a little sandwich bag together with another bag of sticky rice for a snack on the go. The smell of grilled chicken filled our bus before most people had set up shop for the day which was strange, but it could be worse…

We arrived at our guest house, called At Home Sukhothai, after the usual negotiations at the bus station for a tuk tuk. We've learned that unlike in India - where it pays to get irate and tell the driver he's nuts when he tries to overcharge - here, it's always best to be cheerful and smiley when haggling for a fair price. Once we arrived, we were indeed made to feel at home. There was a cute little front garden with lovely soft seats to lounge in and little trees providing some much needed shade among the fish ponds and tiny birds fluttering around . It was the perfect place to chill out with some Thai nibbles and plan our visit into the old city ruins. We realised that the main sights were all inside a designated historical park and could be seen in just a day. We'd planned to stay for three days (tut tut Bret, who planned this leg of the trip!), so we checked with the lovely owner if we could leave earlier than booked - of course it was fine, this is Thailand and the happy-smiley locals are so hospitable. It meant we could make a pit stop via Ayutthaya on route to Bangkok in a few days time…

Anyway, with that sorted we spent the rest of the day taking a hard earned break. We did manage a walk into the not-so-inspiring new town, and got utterly lost (nothing new) on the way back - but that's about as eventful as it got. Oh it's a hard life…

That night we realised the downside of staying in a guest house made of wood - it meant there was little in the way of sound-proofing and we could hear every move that each guest made in the night.. After India though, we are quite used to sleeping through the most incredibly racket, so we slept fairly peacefully. Here in Thailand there are no random gatherings of noisy local people in the the night, no fireworks, no dogs barking, no cars beeping , and no endless chanting blaring out from the local mosque's loud speakers… Strangely we almost miss that, but the insects and birds singing outside instead was quite nice too!

Next day we were up and out nice and early to catch a public bus to the historical park in the old town. We say bus, but it was actually a home-made vehicle of sorts - it was the front part of a pick up truck, with a wooden contraption at the back that had two long benches inside for passengers to sit on… sort of like a trailer. Luckily the driving in Thailand is actually fairly safe - drivers stay in lanes (most of the time) and don't frantically weave in and out of other vehicles, beeping like crazy, like they do in India.

Once we arrived, we followed our guide book and hired bicycles to cycle around the historical park. Apparently it would make the visit less sweaty. It's sizzling hot in Sukhothai at about 38degrees sunny, so it wasn't going to be pleasant either way. Much to our amazement they had a bike big enough for Bret (who is about twice the height of the average Thai) and a pretty pink one for Nat. Sadly after about ten minutes of cycling the pretty pink bike turned out to be a rickety wreck, so it was back to the bike shop to swap it for a boring red one. Anyway, with our bikes sorted, off we went. We picked up an audio guide which had us cycling around the main ruins, offering pretty decent descriptions so we got an idea of the place.

The Sukhothai Kingdom was at its peak during the 14th century, and it was the first capital of Thailand - or Siam as it was then known. The period is often viewed as the 'golden age' of Thai civilisation, and the religious art and architecture of the era are considered to be the most classic of Thai styles -so cycling around the remains of the kingdom was a great way to appreciate and get a better understanding of it.

The temples within the site, which is now a World Heritage site, were incredibly impressive and hard to take in as they were so huge and there was so many of them - from huge Buddhas, to lotus-bud chedi, and stupas... And four big ponds were scattered in between. The park was also really well maintained, and we dashed around for a couple of hours until our legs started to ache and we pretty much melted.

After that we hung around the old town for a Thai style barbecue for lunch (basically meat is covered liberally in fresh chillis) before heading back to our guest house on the 'bus', where we chilled out with a Tiger beer or two...

Now we're hoping to be able to catch a bus further south to Ayutthaya in the morning. The Lonely Planet isn't overly helpful here, but we're told we can just turn up at the bus station and pay the driver, so fingers crossed...