The interesting weekend actually started early Friday morning as I was getting ready for school. Rusty had left early for a bike ride, and I was being lazy. Don't worry...I still got up in time for school. I just always feel unprepared for my Friday classes so I drag my feet a lot. Rusty came upstairs and informed me that his friend from Bangkok was in Chiang Mai. Mr. K is the man who helps Rusty in the Isaan region. So Rusty was supposed to meet him at city hall which meant Rusty needed the truck for the day. Rusty decided to drop me off at school and then take Hope to the immigration office for her visa. We had told Pawn as we were leaving that we might have a houseguest that evening, but we weren't sure yet.
School actually went well for me, but things didn't go so smoothly for Rusty and Hope. Hope ended up having to wait at immigration for her student visa practically all day. She had to catch a ride back to Payap. Rusty went to pick up Mr. K, and everyone made it to Payap by 4 to pick me up. I really thought we would take Mr. K out for northern Thai food as eating food from the different regions is very fun for the Thai people. But Mr. K wanted farang (Western) food. So after a quick trip to the grocery store, we went home to have lasagna, garlic bread, and salad. Whew! I hope everyone enjoyed it even though it was not a carefully planned out menu.
Also that afternoon I found out we were planning a trip to Sukothai for today (Saturday). Considering I have my first assignment due next week which is 30% of my grade, it was hard for me to get super excited. But I readily agreed as I wanted to show hospitality to our guest, and I've been wanting to visit Sukothai. The driver took longer than we expected, but we really enjoyed our day! The weather was nice, and we had a lot of fun.
The stairs at this temple actually weren't that bad. Of course it was early in the day so we were ready for a challenge.
Hopefully you can see the girl kneeling at the foot of the Buddha. Her mother specifically wanted this picture as she had seen this Buddha in a picture before with a young monk praying at his feet. She spoke English very well and was very friendly to us.
OK, Mr. K thought it was funny that I was taking a picture of other farangs, but that wasn't really the point at all. There are bicycles to rent everywhere in Sukothai. It's really a great way to get around and see the ruins and historical sites. It actually felt quite odd to be in a pickup truck. But as Hope mentioned, the air conditioner was quite nice!
This is probably everyone's favorite picture of the day. Rusty asked Mr. K if this tall stack was also part of the ruins. Mr. K our trusty tour guide said that it indeed was. Rusty was skeptical, and as we drove closer it started looking like the remains of a factory. Rusty stopped and asked some people, and they said it used to be a factory. Of course at this point we could also see the remains of the other buildings that used to stand there. Rusty got all of the points for that question, and this picture will be a great reminder of the funny story. Of course it was taken when we all thought it was something important.
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