South East Asia Experience 2019, Report #13 Sukhothai

We are having much more fun here than expected of “some old ruins”; fabulous

weather, scenic ruins, a wonderful 25 km long bike ride through back-country Thailand, and magnificent sunset (and ‘obligatory cop photo’ for daughters). Those of us in a certain age demographic will remember the 1956 movie “The King and I”. The movie is a musical story of the unlikely love between a British

governess/tutor and the king of Siam. The film stars Deborah Kerr and Yul Brynner. We are thinking of that movie here in the setting of that fictional history. Sukhothai (pronounced sook-ha-Thai).is the epicenter of Siam, the former name of Thailand. Thai historians consider the foundation of the Sukhothai Kingdom as the beginning of the Thai nation.

The foundation of Sukhothai is still a celebrated event. As the

genesis of modern Thai history Sukhothai is said to be the 'first national capital'. Sadly, later Sukhothai governance became a model of 'father-son' rule, described as 'Thai Democracy', free from 'foreign ideology' retrospectively characterized as “communism”. This was the ideological paradigm underpinning the prolonged, vicious fighting in this area of the world from1960-1970s during the global Cold War between

communist versus the democratic systems of government. Although earlier on this tour we have seen much evidence of the atrocities of that time, thankfully, today we see little of that latter era of history. Our visit to Sukhothai has been terrific! Tomorrow we anticipate 8 hours travel by

van and train returning to Bangkok, our 30-day tour starting point. Thanks to Isaac and Jeff, our tour guides.

'Till next we have the pleasure of seeing you, love to all, Bob and Kerrell http://lincolnshome.wordpress.com/