Monday, November 13, 2006
Kamphaeng Phet
Nov. 3
This weekend we went on a trip to Sukhothai for the Loy Krathong Festival. This is the largest festival of the fall season and the original celebration is held in Sukhothai. We hired a van and driver and began our trip early on Friday morning. Our first stop was at Kamphaeng Phet which is about 3.5 hrs northwest of Bangkok. It is an ancient city of the Siam Kingdom and was one of the major defenses against the Burmese. The name means "diamond wall". At Kamphaeng Phet the major tourist attractions are the ruins and temples of the ancient city which flourished in the 
13th and 14th centuries. After the Burmese sacked the capitol of Siam, Ayutthya, Kamphaeng Phet was essentially abandoned.
Our driver was Sak and although he spoke no English and I speak very little Thai – none of which I pronounce correctly – we managed. The ancient city is now part of a historical park, which is quite nice. There are very few people and touring the area is very relaxed. You basically have the entire place to yourself. The historic park consists of wats (temples) and religious structures associated with the temples. Apparently the houses of the locals were made of wood and only temples could be made of stone. After numerous wars, natural fires and several hundred years of natural and manmade disasters, none of the wooden structures still exist. Like many of the ancient temples, most of these were originally built to worship the Hindu gods, but were converted to Buddhist temples when Buddhism became the state religion of the region.
After touring Kamphaeng Phet for a few hours we hopped back in the van and drove the rest of the way to Sukhothai, only about another hour. We checked into the Sukhothai Guest House which is a very friendly family-run guest house. The new city of Sukhothai is quite small and the downtown area is easily walkable, so we walked about a bit, had dinner, and turned in relatively early. It was a very relaxing day.
This weekend we went on a trip to Sukhothai for the Loy Krathong Festival. This is the largest festival of the fall season and the original celebration is held in Sukhothai. We hired a van and driver and began our trip early on Friday morning. Our first stop was at Kamphaeng Phet which is about 3.5 hrs northwest of Bangkok. It is an ancient city of the Siam Kingdom and was one of the major defenses against the Burmese. The name means "diamond wall". At Kamphaeng Phet the major tourist attractions are the ruins and temples of the ancient city which flourished in the 
13th and 14th centuries. After the Burmese sacked the capitol of Siam, Ayutthya, Kamphaeng Phet was essentially abandoned.
Our driver was Sak and although he spoke no English and I speak very little Thai – none of which I pronounce correctly – we managed. The ancient city is now part of a historical park, which is quite nice. There are very few people and touring the area is very relaxed. You basically have the entire place to yourself. The historic park consists of wats (temples) and religious structures associated with the temples. Apparently the houses of the locals were made of wood and only temples could be made of stone. After numerous wars, natural fires and several hundred years of natural and manmade disasters, none of the wooden structures still exist. Like many of the ancient temples, most of these were originally built to worship the Hindu gods, but were converted to Buddhist temples when Buddhism became the state religion of the region.
After touring Kamphaeng Phet for a few hours we hopped back in the van and drove the rest of the way to Sukhothai, only about another hour. We checked into the Sukhothai Guest House which is a very friendly family-run guest house. The new city of Sukhothai is quite small and the downtown area is easily walkable, so we walked about a bit, had dinner, and turned in relatively early. It was a very relaxing day.# posted by Joe Spatafora @ 6:03 AM 
