We caught another slow train, through endless fields of rice and sugar cane, to Phitsanulok. In places they've been burning the stuble, creating a dense haze over the whole area. Small hills rise up in the distance from time to time. A procession of food vendors walk through the train, mostly selling meat: pork cooked a multitude of different ways, pieces of chicken on wooden squewers, a variety of sausages and meat balls, bags of cooked rice, meat-filled steamed buns and dried meat. Jacques munches on dried meat happily. After two hours a woman comes past with some peeled grapefruit, which I devour.
The Kingdom of Sukothai flourished for 200 years until 1438, when it was absorbed into the Ayuthaya empire. The remains of the ancient capital city have been partially restored within parkland. We hired bicycles and set off in the morning to see the ruins. We cycled along asphalt roads and dusty pathways under spreading trees, beside lakes and canals. Much of the ruins are far better preserved than anything at Ayuthaya.
Wat Si Sawai (above) is ancient and has three prangs, (imitating Hindu shikhara Vimanas) built in the Lop Buri style, but better preserved than anything at Lop Buri. They are decorated with stucco with some designs similar to those of the Chinese Yuan dynasty. The carved lintel depicts the God Vishnu reclining on a Naga seat, while fragments of Hindu images and a Lingum all indicate that this temple was originally Hindu. Later it was transformed into a Buddhist temple and the lingum was cut down to a stump.
Many of the temples and palaces were originally surrounded by water, symbol of purity, and some of them still are.
Streams of bicycles criss cross the park. Bicycles are the ideal way to see the ruins. Unfortunately, motorbikes, rikshaws, cars, vans and even buses, which disturb the peace from time to time, are also allowed into the park.
We came back to the main road, which runs right through the middle of the park, for lunch. I ordered a fish soup, which came with lots of pieces of galangal, lemon grass, fragrant leaves and lime juice -delicious.
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