Phitsanulok
There have been an incredible three bank holidays here over May. Hopefully I'll find time to write about our trips on the first 2 bank holidays. In the meantime, for our third trip in a month, we went to Phitsanulok and Sukhothai.
Bangkok Air appears to have a clever monopoly on a few very touristic routes. In Sukhothai, they've invested in their own airport and what a beauty it is: sprinkling fountains, serene paddy fields, a mini tram car to ferry you from the landing strip to the 'customs' and 'immigration' counters... a real tourists' delight. Needless to say, Bangkok Air isn't the cheapest airline around but still, it was on time and all perfectly pleasant.
It also has the monopoly on transportation out of the airport so unless you've prearranged pick-ups, you're buggered. We hadn't so we were. We whopped out around 20 quid for a car to take us to Phitsanulok about 60 km away. The road there has to rate the emptiest I've ever seen in Thailand. With 3 lanes either direction, there were hardly any cars at all.
Phitsanulok is a pleasant enough town. There's a nice temple which was thriving due to the Buddha's birthday celebrations. There's a river. An interesting food market. A night market. There's a strange shop that sells policeman paraphernalia, so it looked like you could buy those flouresent vests with 'POLICE' emblazoned on the back, the various caps and hats that go with the job, and some nice cute ceramic models. We were too chicken to go in and ask about them though. Most bizarre moment: after dinner at the Flying Vegetable restaurant (where fried greens are tossed 20m from wok to dish), we were picked up by a rickshaw driver who had the King emblazoned on the seats and back of his vehicle. No, not the Thai King, but ELVIS. So there we were being cycled at about 5 km an hour by an aging hillbilly while Elvis' greatest hits were being blasted out by his portable stereo system in the middle of Phitsanulok.
Fatt wanted to see the FA Cup, so we ended up in a bar across the river with a big screen. One of the waitresses took a liking to us and in a mixture of Thai and English she managed to tell us just about her whole life story: how she is 6 years older than her husband, how she can't have kids as her ovaries were blocked up (neither our Thai nor her English were up to the job of conveying this info, so she drew a picture), how she had an accident on a motorcycle 7 years ago and had to have drastic operations... It was just as well that she kept us company because the match was dull dull dull. Fatt - a Man U supporter - was gutted by the result. And even though I like Arsenal, I didn't care WHO won so long as somebody would score a bleeding goal SOON so I could back to the hotel and sleep.
The next day, Fatt breakfasted at KFC where we were pleased to observe a nice line in flying hats.
We were too tight to cough up another 20 quid for a car to Sukhothai, so we hotbussed it instead for about 35 pence each. Although there wasn't a great deal to do in Phitsanulok, it was nice enough and had a bit of nightlife to it. (To be continued...)
Bangkok Air appears to have a clever monopoly on a few very touristic routes. In Sukhothai, they've invested in their own airport and what a beauty it is: sprinkling fountains, serene paddy fields, a mini tram car to ferry you from the landing strip to the 'customs' and 'immigration' counters... a real tourists' delight. Needless to say, Bangkok Air isn't the cheapest airline around but still, it was on time and all perfectly pleasant.
It also has the monopoly on transportation out of the airport so unless you've prearranged pick-ups, you're buggered. We hadn't so we were. We whopped out around 20 quid for a car to take us to Phitsanulok about 60 km away. The road there has to rate the emptiest I've ever seen in Thailand. With 3 lanes either direction, there were hardly any cars at all.
Phitsanulok is a pleasant enough town. There's a nice temple which was thriving due to the Buddha's birthday celebrations. There's a river. An interesting food market. A night market. There's a strange shop that sells policeman paraphernalia, so it looked like you could buy those flouresent vests with 'POLICE' emblazoned on the back, the various caps and hats that go with the job, and some nice cute ceramic models. We were too chicken to go in and ask about them though. Most bizarre moment: after dinner at the Flying Vegetable restaurant (where fried greens are tossed 20m from wok to dish), we were picked up by a rickshaw driver who had the King emblazoned on the seats and back of his vehicle. No, not the Thai King, but ELVIS. So there we were being cycled at about 5 km an hour by an aging hillbilly while Elvis' greatest hits were being blasted out by his portable stereo system in the middle of Phitsanulok.
Fatt wanted to see the FA Cup, so we ended up in a bar across the river with a big screen. One of the waitresses took a liking to us and in a mixture of Thai and English she managed to tell us just about her whole life story: how she is 6 years older than her husband, how she can't have kids as her ovaries were blocked up (neither our Thai nor her English were up to the job of conveying this info, so she drew a picture), how she had an accident on a motorcycle 7 years ago and had to have drastic operations... It was just as well that she kept us company because the match was dull dull dull. Fatt - a Man U supporter - was gutted by the result. And even though I like Arsenal, I didn't care WHO won so long as somebody would score a bleeding goal SOON so I could back to the hotel and sleep.
The next day, Fatt breakfasted at KFC where we were pleased to observe a nice line in flying hats.
We were too tight to cough up another 20 quid for a car to Sukhothai, so we hotbussed it instead for about 35 pence each. Although there wasn't a great deal to do in Phitsanulok, it was nice enough and had a bit of nightlife to it. (To be continued...)
posted by sylv at 2:13 pm
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