Sukhothai Historical Park 22.02.10

In Sukhothai New Town, 15km from the historical park, we find ourselves a little slice of luxury in the form of Ruen Thai Hotel, a traditional teak building with a picture perfect swimming pool. Our room is in the main teak house over a wooden verandah where we have to remove our shoes to cross. It's quite a nice tradition, no footwear in the living areas of the house, because it keeps the floors clean and makes a definite distinction between indoors and outdoors. It's become commonplace in Thailand because meals are normally consumed at floor level. The following day we visit the extensive historic ruins of Sukhothai Park, the site of the ancient capital of the Thai kingdom of Sukhothai in the 14th century. Most of the ruins have lost their original plaster decoration and plain brick structures are all that remain, however, some of the more important areas have been partially restored with new concrete fill-ins. The royal kingdom was built in a square format with surrounding city walls that span 2x2km. The main temple in the centre of the square is Wat Mahathat with it's three giant stone buddhas, all facing east, as is customary for all large examples in Thailand. The remaining pillars would've supported a large wooden roof and it would've been a very impressive building at the time of the first Lanna kings of northern Thailand. The former Sukhothai kingdom stretched as far south as Phuket and covered all areas in between before it was supplanted by Ayutthaya and the city in the north was left to ruin, It's a serene place with many ornamental lakes and moats reflecting the regal remains and landscaped islands with their own religious shrines. It's reminiscent, in a way, of the grandness of the gardens of Versailles with it's tree lined boulevards and use of perfect symmetry.