thailand 3

after ayuthaya i went to lopburi...another historical town, with more temples/ruins...not too far from ayuthaya...i was excited when the bus dropped me off in town instead of at the bus station, saving me a 2km walk in the heat...i was not excited when the first place i wanted to see had an entrance fee WAY higher than i had expected...i had expected 50 baht, but it had increased to 150 baht...sad, but i walked away...the third place i visited was the best...as a set of ruins, it's not all that exciting, you can take all the pictures you want across the street...but you pay the entrance fee in order to hang out with the monkeys...for whateva reason, a band of monkeys hangs out at these ruins all day long...they're smart, or at least they've learned certain behaviors from being around humans so much...they know how to take food out of your hands, even if you weren't planning on giving it to them...they know how to drink out of a cup...they know how to peel the lid off a jello cup and eat the jello...they know how to take the wrappers off little lollies and eat them...they know how to eat corn on the cob...i loved it when they climbed on me...that's supposed to be dangerous, but nothing happened to me, and i loved it...they're cute:)...across the train tracks from these ruins is a shrine at which an old man gave me a fortune, which just happened to be the best fortune in the bunch...yay!! the second day at this shrine i saw a novice monk be ordained...he wasn't smiling, but everyone else was...he was dressed in a fancy white uniform, and carried on the shoulders of someone...there was even a band set up in the back of a truck!! lopburi doesnt have much to see or do, so i only stayed a day and a half...i didn't see any other westerners (well, none that i could visually identify as westerners) while i was there, which was fun...the town isn't nearly as touristy as ayuthaya, and the street stalls have GREAT food...i walked around for quite a while just checking out the food options..
after lopburi, i headed to sukhothai...my third city in a row of ruins/history...the fourth if you count the history of kanchanaburi...sukhothai was the capital of the first true thai kingdom...waaaayyyy back when...during the time sukhothai was the capital city, the nation grew quite a bit, a specific architecture style was created, and an alphabet was created...all in just 150 yrs:) ...nowadays, most visitors stay in new sukhothai, and go visit sukhothai historical park, which is about 15km out of town...again, it's a great place to rent a bicycle...the entire area is flat, and perfect for pedaling...the park is divided into 5 sections, and you have to pay an entrance fee for three of them...again, the entrance fees had increased quite a bit from what i had expected, which was hugely disappointing, but this time i didn't walk away...the temples/ruins are pretty impressive...it's a big area, and there didn't seem to be too many tourists...the ruins here are much better preserved than in ayuthaya...
another day i took a local bus 1.5 hours down the road to si sitchanalai historical park...very similar to sukhothai historical park...but even less touristed...and i got rained on...whoops...now that i've seen the ruins in different cities, i can sorta see some architectural differences...not many, but some...