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Those of you who were aware of our planned route might find it a suprise to discover that this entry is from Sukhothai and not Koh Samui. Well what happened was, I was sitting at the computer in the hostel in Chiang Mai trying to check in online for our flight to Phuket. We had planned to fly to Phuket, stay the night, and get the bus and ferry to the other side of the country and over to Koh Samui. This was the cheapest and quickest way of getting from Chiang Mai to the island without going on many buses. Anyway, as I mentioned, checking in online. A girl sitting on the machine next to me asked where we were going. Phuket I said. She told me she had just come from there and there was very heavy rain, flood warnings, landslides and that the islands were being evacuated. Then the hostel owner came over and told us the same. Well, this is not the first natural disaster we have faced and although we were yet again extrememly annoyed with Mother Nature, at least we werent down in the thick of it again, it looked pretty bad on the news. So we decided to stay one more day in Chiang Mai and then head back down towards Bangkok stopping here in Sukhothai and then in Ayuthaya the next night. Both of these places have temple ruins and are former capitals of the former Thailands which share their names. So off we went on the 2nd class bus for 5 hours or so, it was grand, though the weather had picked up so the bus was a bit hot even with air con. The journey was easy enough going. Regina as usual slept most of it. I listened to 132 tracks of the Beatles Anthology CD's (I finished the remaining 25 before bed). The views were at least a bit more interesting than the train. Lots of autumnal shades amongst the tree covered hills mixed with fresh green trees and temples. Slightly bizzare combination for what to us is effectively Spring. The further from Chiang Mai we went the more rural things got with paddy fields and farm lands everywhere.... nice to be out of the smog!!! The bus conductor came down to us anyway after a while and asked if we wanted New Sukhothai or Old Sukhothai. We got out at the old and went over to the Tuk Tuk rank. A lady there asked where we were going, we told her Mountain View Guesthouse and she said, rather quickly "four to five" kilometres..... Regina, bless her, heard forty five km and got a little annoyed with me for getting off at the first stop (old town and not new). Thankfully I both heard her correctly and new it was the old town. The tuk tuk that took us to the guesthouse was of the front loading variety. Three wheels, one at the back and two at the front where the passengers sit. The rear is essentially a moped so it was a nice easy pace heading up from the town to the hostel.... it only cost about 4 euro too. The place is nice, very very rural, but its nice to be out in the sticks for a change and the staff are really nice (we are the only guests). So, thats the new plan... we are keeping our options open for getting to the island when they dry up again.... tomorrow we explore the ruins in the city.... Unesco world heritage site number 15 I think....
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