Suwankhalok to Old Si Satchanalai

December 10, 2019

The City of Good People

City of Good People

In the morning, after we had the free Nescafe that every guest house offers these days, we again rode along the Yom River. Finding such roads/paths are such a treat as opposed to riding on roads no matter how quiet the roads might be. As we followed the Yom north it got nicer, meaning that it had more water and looked more like a very pleasant little river. There was also a small dam which helped in creating a more full look. We didn’t know how far we could actually follow the river or had plans if we couldn’t. We just rode along very much enjoying the quiet ride only occasionally disrupted by dogs who told us that they had never seen foreigners on bikes.

Even though it's just Nescafe coffee mix it's kind of a nice thing that hotels and guest houses now offer it free every morning.

A nice bridge to begin our day leaving Suwankhalok.

Sometimes at Wats there are these funerary monuments. They contain the ashes of prominent monks or rich and/or prominent people of the community.

The path along the Yom River was sometimes very narrow between houses and the river.

I love these old teak houses. This one could be a hundred years old. Teak never rots so there is little incentive to paint it or do anything to it.

Old used rice cutting blades stuck in the siding on the left. Knives in use inside the kitchen stuck on the right. Plus a pan lid.

After about ten miles we came upon one of the ancient ruins of Si Satchanalai - Wat Chao Chan. Our favorite ruins are those with no one around and which we don’t have to pay to enter. This one met both of those desires and we clamored around marveling at how people chiseled laterite rock (volcanic) and fit it together to build enormous temples. The porous nature of laterite made for perfect material to hold the exterior covering of stucco, plaster/cement type stuff. We also marveled at all the birdsong. There are so many wonderful birds in Thailand. If I was a serious birder I’d make Thailand home for awhile.

There are three chedis at Wat Chao Chan which is pretty unusual.

All the temples of this era in this part of Thailand were made with laterite, a volcanic stone.

At Wat Chao Chan. This is definitely a Hindu structure predating the Sukhothai Period built when the Khmer ruled this area around 1230.

After our restful time at the small ruins we continued along the Yom River and suddenly we were surprised to be in front of Wat Mahathat (full name - Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahathat Rajaworaviharn), the major temple of the Si Satchanalai. Si Satchanalai was part of the Sukhothai empire and founded in 1250. Si Satchanalai means City of Good People.

When we left our guest house in New Sukhothai the guest house owner told us that there was a five day festival in Si Satchanalai centered at Wat Mahathat. We hadn’t looked to see where Wat Mahathat was nor had we remembered the name at all until we quite literally stumbled upon it.

The Wat Mahathat structure actually predates the Sukhothai era by a few years when the Khmer ruled the area which explains its more Hindu temple shape. At any rate it’s an impressive height after seeing so many Thai style temples which are generally lower.

As we rode the road around it it was quite obvious a big festival had taken place every night for several in a row. There were venders recovering all over the place and all was quiet for the moment. We could see that it was quite the festival and we decided on the spot that we’d like to attend in the evening. That meant that we needed to find accommodation nearby. All we could think about was how expensive and already booked nearby guest houses would be. How wrong we were.

Only a couple hundred meters from the festival area we came upon a homestay - Papong Homestay. I’ve always thought homestays are usually more expensive normally and I thought they would have jacked the price up even more for the festival. And being the closest accommodation to the festival I thought it must certainly be fully booked as well. But, you never know anything unless you ask. It turned out no one was staying there and the price of $20 was within our budget especially considering how immaculate the room was. The older couple who owned the place were super nice. It seemed like they maybe had never had foreigners stay there before as the woman looked nervous and the man was super excited to have us. We couldn’t figure out why no one was staying there but we didn’t think about it too much and considered ourselves quite lucky. It was so incredibly close to the festival it would not even be much of a walk in the evening.

While we waited for evening we took a ride into the Si Satchanalai Historical Park which was similar to Sukhothai’s. We didn’t pay to get into where all the ruins were but were happy riding around the periphery on a new and luxuriously smooth bike lane.

This was a really beautiful ride around ancient Si Satchanalai.

Then we had some old style Thai coffee which was made by an old woman right across the street from our homestay. The old style coffee is hard to find now days. It has all sorts of other things in it besides coffee such as chicory and who knows what else. Also it has sweetened condensed milk. It wouldn’t appeal to a lot of people but I am quite accustomed to the taste from forty some years ago when that was all a person could find in Thailand.

As it got dark we walked over to see what was happening. Well, let me tell you, everything Thai was happening. There were colored lights illuminating Mahathat, there was every kind of food imaginable everywhere our heads turned, there was hand woven cotton and silk, baskets, clothing, dancing groups, live music on small stages, coffee, things on sticks, you name it. True to the Thais' desires, food was the main attraction. After we had eaten some of the most delicious organic noodles underneath all sorts of scrumptious meats and vegetables we went to watch the main attraction at the main stage. With a backdrop of the multicolored Mahathat different dance groups took the stage to perform their routines one after another every few minutes. Then for intermission a fashion show took place! The whole thing was quite impressive and we were so glad we decided to be flexible with no real schedule or plans. It turned out that it was the final night of the festival too. I even bought a T-shirt made by the Si Satchanalai/Sukhothai Weaving Center. A big night!

Food and places to eat everywhere. And, again we found ourselves to be the only foreigners.

The big festival at Wat Mahathat. It was for the five days leading up to the full moon. We were fortunate to stumble upon it on its final evening.

Our room at Papong Homestay was luxury to us. It had a very large balcony overlooking an especially beautiful wooded area of the Yom River. Again, birds were everywhere and while sitting out there Andrea made the discovery that a very high-pitched sound that we always assumed was made by a bird was actually made by a tiny chipmunk. It was quite a discovery because I had heard that sound for many years and never dreamed it was anything other than a bird and certainly not a chipmunk! It was a big day!

lovebruce

Andrea on our deck making great discoveries.

Today's ride: 11 miles (18 km)
Total: 416 miles (669 km)

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Scott AndersonThis is all so amazing. It’s like you’re taking two completely different tours.
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4 years ago

Jen RahnHow lucky to stumble upon the opportunity to attend this festival .. and to stay in such a great place!
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4 years ago

Kristen ArnimConsidering how long you own/wear T-shirts, it’s got to be a good one.
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4 years ago