Sunday, November 16, 2008

Day 11 - Thurs Nov 13 - Si-Satchanalai-Chaliang Historical Park, or "It's hard to know who to trust"

Having learned our lesson in Sukothai re: booking ahead, I book us a night in the next stop on our trip at a place called the Wang Yom Resort. The map/guide places it squarely in the center of where we want to be.

We arrive by bus around 10AM and are immediately greeted by a woman in her late 30s who's the town greeter/entrepreneur (bike and scooter rental, room rentals, transportation via motorcycle to your hotel, etc.) All very informal, as is the bus stop, which is a small triangular hut next to the highway. Small village. (The woman's name, by the way, is Oon, which sounds like "own" if you said an especially long "o" at the beginning.)

As we try to orient ourselves with the guidebook, Oon finishes her pitch with a group of day-tripping Germans who exited the bus ahead of us, and comes over to us, with our huge backpacks: clearly overnighters. She begins her pitch which is both insistent and confusing.
We tell her that we've already booked a room at the Wong Yom Resort and she offers to drive us on her motorcycle (one at a time) for about 8 dollars each. She says the resort is about 7 km away, even though the Lonely Planet map says it's only 3 or 3.5 km away. When I call the resort, they confirm that yes, they're 7 km away, but I don't understand much else that the woman is saying (they have only slightly more English than we have Thai).

Oon has decent English, but it's jumbled up with details about how she has a friend who has a cheaper guesthouse, she can drive us, Wang Yom doesn't exist, etc. It starts to sound a bit like the Bangkok Shuffle, so we are dubious and decide to head out on foot (after soundly cursing the Lonely Planet map for it's faulty scale-guides again.) We estimate it won't take longer than 1 hour and we're fine with walking.

We set out and discover that Oon is following us on her motorcycle. She's nice enough, but persistent and confusing so we continue walking. And walking. It's a nice little town and we enjoy the view.

We pass some chilis drying by the roadside:



We notice that the line-to-road proportions between map-to-reality are pretty good (Ie. it shouldn't be 7 km to the resort, only 3.5km) and we revise our opinion of Lonely Planet maps (slightly). Friendly, persistent Oon continues to dive up every few minutes and talk about Wong Yom gone, she has a friend with a room, she can rent us a room...

She gets off her bike to show us her map again which is getting anoying so I say thank you politely and continue walking (<- the only solution that ever works in Bangkok) at which point she stamps her foot in frustation. There's something about her foot stamp that is the most genuine thing I've seen from her so far. It makes me stop and walk back (Pierre's already there - such a polite boy). Oon points to a deserted, decrepit set of buildings back in the grass next to the road and says, in a nutshell, THAT'S Wong Yam resort, it closed down all of its buildings in town and has moved to an area 7 km up the highway. Finally, things make a bit more sense. Oon's much happier now that she's been understood, and we genuinely thank her. As she leaves, she repeats that she can give us a room later if we don't catch the bus back to Sukhothai, then waves and drives away. We continue on to the historical park on foot, a few kilometers ahead, in the hopes of finding bikes for rent, but there are none worth bothering with. So we have a bite to eat and drink of water, and Pierre writes up a short letter, in English and in French, that explains that the Wang Yom resort has moved. We plan to give the letter to Oon next time we see her, to help her explain the Wang Yom situation more clearly to anyone else who might show up at the bus stop expecting to stay there. The rest of the day is uneventful, and we find a beautiful little homestay on our walk, and then we ride around the historical area. It's a sleepy little rural town (maybe a few hundred people?) with only a few busloads of tourists on short day trips, and lovely ruins ranging from the 11th to the 15th Century.
One building is surrounded by old elephant statues - apparently these are rare because they have 4 legs and a full body - apparently most temples only sculpt the front half:


Some hilltop ruins (Wat Khao Phanom Phaeng):


A few more architectural details still remain here at this historical park, moreso than in Sukhothai or Ayutthaya :



(detail of wall)


(light from behind the wall):




Moody ruins:


Ruins wrapped in cloth:




Crossing the footbridge from the street near our guesthouse to the bus station/hut area:


At the bus station/hut the next day, we run into Oon again as she waits for more tourists. She claps her hands and starts laughing.

"Hello. You again. Haha. You walk and walk. No. Wang Yom Resort no. You walk. So hot. Tired. Haha. You stay where?"

We have a nice visit while waiting for the bus. She has two sons, 12 and 15, who have taught her some English - the rest she picks up from working with tourists at the bus stop. She's the 4th of 8 kids, and didn't go to school herself, though she still managed to learn to read and write Thai (no mean feat with 44 consonants and 48 vowel/dipthong possibilities). We give her the letter explaining Wang Yom Resort's relocation, and then have a quick language swap. (She teaches us "bus" and "train" and we teach her "show" vs "look", "how are you" and "I'm good thanks".

Our bus drives by without any intention of stopping so she runs out into the road to flag it down for us with some crazy jazz hands. It comes to a dusty sop about 100 m down the road and we grab our bags, and say thanks and goodbye as we run down the road to get on the bus.

(On day 21, Nov 23, we pass by the bus stop again on our way down to Phisanulok from Chiang Rai and we keep an eye out for her so we can wave out the window, but have no luck.)

photo credits: P, P, P, P, P, D, D, P, D, P, D, D, D

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