Sukhothai

so i figured it was time to write again, especially now that i'm in a new place! i arrived in sukhothai last night, after a lovely 7.5 hour bus ride (wasn't actually as bad as it sounds - surprisingly, i got to watch thai comedy films, they have an interesting often violent style to them, and got free lunch and snack - served by a hostess) and am feeling much better, though still convinced that i would not last for 2 months traveling alone, i'm just not built for that. last night i didn't do much but keep working on finalizing all my itinerary changes, which, except for one thing, they are now. i'll be coming home on the 11th of december now - which is still a good ways away in my head.

anyway, today i went out to old sukhothai where the ruins of the first capitol of thailand are. it's pretty cool that all that is still there (though some of it is now reconstruction, but still). i don't know if i appreciated it as much as i hoped though. i'm not a huge fan of brick buddhist temples/temple ruins, which is basically what the ruins are, on a huge scale and repeatedly. the remaining sculptures though were amazing, one in particular i am very fond of (at wat sra sri, aka wat sa si). but in terms of being inspired photographically, there wasn't much there for me. part of that stemmed from it being midday, so the lighting was crap, and it was so so so so hot i couldn't think. i've been sweating all day and with my sun-sensitive skin (thanks malaria medication) i had to keep putting sunblock on continuously over all the sweat and dirt. gross right? anyway, my face still burnt i think, but i'll know for sure tomorrow. anyway, i really like it here, which is good, but i still have 2 more days, and i can't really say i want to spend much more time at the ruins, and there's not much else to do around here. so it looks like a lot of time in the guesthouse chill-out area is in order.

speaking of my guesthouse, this place is awesome, free internet, good food, good location, super nice staff and guests, and at night they play killer music - blast from the past style - alex, think high school, maybe even a little middle school. and there's a tv in my room on which i get two channels, the best of which plays thai gameshows that can start to make sense when you watch them long enough.

after this i'm off to chiang mai to stay with a really nice girl i met on couchsurfing.com - hopefully that will help with my still relevant bouts of homesickness. she won't be going out with me much, but at least i'll have someone to wake-up to and eat dinner with. i've also found someone through couchsurfing to meet up with in siem reap. the cool thing is that he's a photographer who's been to the angkor ruins before several years ago and is back to do a photo workshop. so he's a few steps ahead of me in talent/career/etc. but hopefully that'll help me enjoy my time at angkor more because i won't be alone all day at the temples.

anyway, i've been on the computer forever now and should give someone else a turn. i'll write again from chiang mai probably, or maybe sooner, who knows