Shine a light

24.11.2012 - Lampang

10am: Got to the busstation in Chiang Mai and bought tickets for a bus to Lampang. Lucky we still got some, all the buses seem really full.

11:45am: There is our bus. Let's board this baby and get going. Oh, pretty full...where do all these people come from? Hm, let's see if we can find two seats next to each other. Maybe there in the back? No, taken. Or there, behind the snoring monch?Nope, taken. Hm...will we even find two single seats on this bus?

Travelling first class - at least if you consider the view...

12pm: The bus is leaving. One of us is sitting in the last available seat on the bus. The other one is squatting down on a tiny bucket next to the busdriver. Special.

2pm: Luckily this was a short ride...still, some backs are hurting pretty badly now. For the bus to Bangkok at least, lets take the tourist bus.

3pm: Met Kate, our wonderful first couchsurfing host. She is so funny, open minded and smart. Picked us up by car and drove us to her appartment to drop of our stuff. Her room is girly, with pink walls, tons of shoes and lots of decor. And she is a student like us: lots of little sticky notes at the walls but skipping class to show us around. We are off for great local food, some sightseeing and the weekend bazaar now.

Kate and Anna at Wat Si Rong Muang

10pm: Had a great day. Visited some cool, Burmese style temples that look very different from the Thai style temples we have seen lately. Got lost in Lampang with Kate who doesn't spend much time here but prefers to go to Chiang Mai. Drove around in her car and relaxed. Had great food. Watched funny Thai TV. Discussed a lot about each others backgrounds. Met Kate's friends at the bazaar. Bought fruits for a whole soccer team and ate it all on the floor at Kates place - Isaan style (north east of Thailand, where Kate is from). Tried all sorts of Thai treats at the market (who would have thought that we hadn't tried them all yet...). Made a great new friend.To bed now. Kate's bed, by the way. She sleeps on her couch next to us.

25.11.2012 - Lampang

Breakfast at Kate's

10am: Oops, slept in. Haven't slept so well in a long long time. Hm, and Kate has already prepared breakfast. Awesome start into a probably great day.

11am: Ready for take off. Kate offered to take us to an extra special Wat outside of town before dropping us off in the city and go to classes herself. Her classes start at 1pm. Better hurry up now.

Wat Phra That Lampang Luang

12:30pm: This Wat is massive and so many Thai people come here to pray. It is like on a fair, crowded and loud, colourful and shiny. Where to look first?! Kate explains us how to surround a stupa the proper way: three times with folded hands, clockwise. Each time is for a different purpose: wisdom, peace and - well, Kate forgot the third one, but it's a good one for sure, so make it three rounds.

1:30pm: Still at the Wat. Kate is skipping class again. Are we such a bad influence?!

2pm: Driving around the landscape. Where is the way back to Lampang? Oh, wait, stop please. We need to take another picture.

With Kate on the night bazaar in Lampang

5pm: Went to a great hidden coffeeshop where we shared awesome fried ice cream. Yummie. Went back to Kate's place for some rest and are now really hungry. Time for the best restaurant in town - Kate is inviting us and we are really going local again. Yeah!

11pm: Great food, good stroll over the bazaar, some christmas shopping - done. The best bed in years awaits - we can't wait.




26.11.2012 - Sukothai

6:30am: Alarm rings, time to get up or Kate will be skipping class again.We can't let that happen... Cold shower and great Isaan style breakfast (sticky rice and BBQ pork) are the secret to a fast start.

8am: Having to say goodbye to our new friend, Kate. A beautiful, generous girl - what a great first couch surfing experience! We loved it and hope to meet again - either in Thailand or in Europe.

On the bikes in Sukothai

3pm: Arrived in Sukhothai. Man it is crowded in this town. Must be all about Loy Krathong, the festival of lights that is happening on the full moon of the twelfth month of the lunar calendar - to be clear: the 28th of November. Really happy to stay at a very nice guesthouse outside of town, right in the jungle.

6pm: Went to New Sukhothai by bike and explored the town a little. Crazy traffic. Went shopping on the local market - used the skills we learned from Kate to find all the good food we now know. Looking forward to having it all for dinner.

27.11.2012 - Sukothai

9am: Got up, took a long nice and cold shower and had breakfast. Taking some time now to prepare our trip to Bali a little while sipping on a cold Bananashake and enjoying the sun. It's steaming hot.

12pm: Time for us to go to Old Sukhothai now and explore the ruins of the capitol of the first Thai kingdom. We found out that they celebrate Loy Krathong for 4 days, so there will be plenty of things going on. We are excited.

12:30pm: After succesfully waving down the local bus to the old city like locals do, we are on our way. It might take us forever to get there. It is the slowest vehicle that ever roamed the earth. 14 km to the historical park...We should have taken a book.

1pm: Got off at the right spot, bought entrance tickets and audioguides and are ready to enter the magical ruins of old Sukhothai. Lara and Indi are alive and well.

5pm: Wow. Sukhothai is stunning. The city that was built in the late 13th century was huge, very sophisticated and is descriped as the most beautiful place. The ruins bear witness of this - temples with tons of pretty chedis, columns and so many huge Buddha images everywhere. Meeting places, drums that were rung for audiences with the king, ponds that are covered with water lillies and Khmer influenced towers - all this can still be found in the area. And within this compound there is a massive festival area with what must be thousands of food stalls, massage areas, vintage markets and Krathong sellers. That's what we will explore now - and better start with the food stalls, we are starving.

The beautiful Wat Mahathat at daylight

Buddha at Wat Mahathat

11pm: This was better than Oktoberfest, New Years and Carneval all at once! We found good spots across a pond to catch a glimpse of the light and sound show at Wat Mahathat, the most iconic sight at Old Sukhothai and the perfect stage for a show about Sukhothai's history. We definetely want tickets to that for tomorrow! We had great food and drinks, we watched lamps being enlightened and send to the sky, wondered about the skillfull art of building lanterns that even enter contests, enjoyed the whole exciting atmosphere at the festival area and walked amid the enchanting ruins lid by candlelight. And tomorrow night it is supposed to be even bigger! Time now to catch the bus back to the guesthouse.

2am: Finally made it to the guesthouse. Man, the local transfer needs some optimization around here...

28.11.2012 - Sukothai

9am: Loy Kratong day in Thailand. We are up but still kind of sleepy. We will spend some relaxing time at the guesthouse before renting a motorbike and going back to the Old city.

The PARTY people

4:30pm: Oops, what happened to the whole day that laid ahead of us?! And why is it starting to rain like that? It's too late and wet for the motorbike now. We better hurry, the local bus takes so long.

5pm: It happened again, like it has happened so often on this trip - just when we thought things didn't work out today like we planned them to this morning, everything got better because they didn't! Peter and Birgit, a German couple travelling around Thailand by car, just got here and are looking for someone to show them the way to Old Sukhothai. How awesome is that?!

5:10pm: Haha, passed by two local buses already. We like cars. And Peter and Birgit are really nice. They will also take us back home later. Could it get any better than this?!

Flying lantern decorate the skys

7:30pm: The whole place is crowded with thousands of Thai families, flirting teenagers and playing children. Everyone seems so ecxited and the air seems to vibrate. We are at our seats for the light and sound show. Really looking forward to this.

Light and sound show in front of the old temples

9pm: The show was great. Beautiful dresses, traditional dancing and enaction of the rise and fall of Sukhothai and the history of Loy Krathong (that was actually celebrated first in Sukhothai). It is amazing how many elements of the modern Thai society are based on the Sukhothai kingdom's society. But no time to be lazy, the next show starts shortly at the temple across the bridge and we have to fight our way over there through a wall of people...

Jens' Krathong

10pm: More dancing, traditional music, some comedy (that we didn't understand of course as it was in Thai). And now it is time for us to float our own Krathongs. These are little boats made of Banana leaves, flowers etc. We do it like we were told to: put incense sticks, a candle and a hair and a nail or something else of ourselves on the boat, light the candle, hold the boat up in front of our faces with our folded hands and pray that all the bad floats out of us and all the good comes to us instead. Then we put the boat in the water and watch it drift away.

Our flying lantern

10:30pm: Now it is time to start our flying lantern. Thousands of them sprinkle the dark sky over the historical park and it looks magic. Together with many others, we hold our lantern, enlighten the candle and wait for the hot air to fill up the balloon before we slowly let it go up to the sky. So romantic...

11:30pm: It's almost time for the grand finally now. Thousands have found a spot to sit around the great pond where the royal Krathongs will be lit and a grand firework will mark the end of Loy Krathong. We try to find a place to stand in the growing crowd, but everyone steps onto everyone elses feet. A Thai man sits in front of us on his mat with all his family. We have seen him there hours ago - he saved the spot for a very long time. He recognizes us and offers us a seat on his mat. We suddenly have first row seats for the spectacle. How great are these Thai people?!

2am: This was surely the biggest firework we have ever seen. And we sat right underneath all the sparkle (this wouldn't be possible in certain other parts of the world due to safety regulations...)! Our ears might be ringing, but we don't care. We are so full of everything we just saw. The Thai sure know how to have a party (btw. without a drop of booze!) and get their visitors in awe!

3am: Back at the guesthouse. Time for bed, our bus to Bangkok will leave early tomorrow morning. That means we have Mameow to look forward to. The good times just never end here in Thailand.