Sukhothai - Sukhothai Historical Park - Wat Mahathat

Our first stop in the idyllic Sukhothai Historical Park.

Sukhothai - signs

A few signs around town. The 'please stop copying' sign was directed to the restaurant next door, which the restaurant displaying the sign felt was copying their concept. I had never previously seen a sign at a restaurant directed towards another restaurant.

The big red 'x' had us confused - some signs use symbols to make their message more universal and succinct, but we have no idea what this sign meant. Presumably, it means 'no' or 'prohibited', but... what is prohibited? What shouldn't we do? It confused us, and made me a bit anxious. I imagined doing, well, anything, and having someone walk up, and say 'didn't you see the sign'?

And no, my in-laws didn't pause for even a moment before merrily leaping onto the 'decayed' balustrade and striding across. It takes more than a few dodgy boards to keep them on one side of a river.

Sukhothai - Si Satchanalai - Wat Chang Lom

I don't know what it is about adding elephants to a temple, but it always seems to make it more enjoyable. 'Chang' means elephant in Thai, and more than one of the temples we've visited during our time here has that word in the name of the temple. From what it looks like, the hardest parts of a gigantic stone or concrete elephant to build and keep intact are the trunks and tusks. Angkor Thom had a few pretty intact, but they built the trunks more or less as columns.

Sukhothai - Si Satchanalai - Wat Chedi Jet Thaew

I always find ruins evocative, and the more the ruins are a broken shadow, the more my imagination takes hold. It also amazes me when modern people still pay respects to such old places - notice the robe draped around the buddha statue that is but a rocky core of what it was. It's a neat tribute to history, and the values that join the people who created the place with the people of the present day.