Thursday, 7/29
SUKOTHAI
We visited some ruins of palaces and temples and the
Ramkamhaeng Museum.
The King is the father and supreme judge and the people are the children. There used to be a drum in the middle and if there was a disagreement, the people would come and beat the drum to summon the king to make a decision. After a decision was made, the parties had to reconcile - no further quarrel or anger.
The
"point" on top of the head is the "Flame of Knowledge".
Amy's picture:
Here I am, still pretty tentative coming down steps. It doesn't look very high,
but it was....and it didn't have handrails! Tim is staying nearby to help me -
what a nice guy!
We went into the Ramkamhaeng Museum,
but we were not allowed to take big purses/bags or cameras into the museum (they
had free lockers). The museum was a little boring and most people ended up just
finding a place to sit near a fan to try to cool off.
After leaving, we went to lunch. The food was very bland --
vegetable chicken soup (for farangs), tempura-type string beans and onion rings,
and something that looked like larb, but had no chiles. Up to that point, the
food was very marginal - certainly not the GREAT Thai food I was expecting, but
I guess I should have remembered that we would be eating a lot of buffet food
catering to tour groups. Amy wasn't feeling well - carsick and headache plus I
think the heat was beginning to affect her - so, she didn't eat too much. She
tried to take some Bonine, but not soon enough to really be of any use.
Amy's picture:
Not exactly sure why Amy took this picture.
It's the drink list sign from where we had lunch.
Across the road from the restaurant was a row of vendors selling souvenirs.
This was a sign in one of the shops.
After lunch, we stopped at Si Satchanalai. Besides the ruins, there was a suspension bridge over a river. Amy went across the bridge about a third of the way for me to take a picture, but someone (I can't remember who) began to talk to me, so Amy came back and wouldn't go back out again. I tried to go across (I wanted to try to get halfway), but I didn't even get over the water before I decided that the motorcycles that kept going across the bridge made me too nervous.
There was also a small (very small) marketplace selling souvenirs. Amy bought an
ashtray for Uncle Terry.
