Buddhist Biking

9/18/2006

This morning we took a tsongtau to the Sukhothai Historical Park, which is basically a collection of Buddhist temples. A tsongtau is a pickup truck with the rear equpped with two benches and a cover. Like a taxi, it is a common form of public transportation throughout Thailand. We rented bicycles to ride around the temples, which was a very good idea. One funny thing was that a Thai guy also on a bicycle decided that he would lead some of us around the park. We couldn't communicate with him at all, but he seemed to really want us to follow him. We followed him for a while, and Richard gave him a small tip. The strange thing was that he had a rented bicycle just like us. It is interesting to note that tipping is generally not done in SE Asia.

After getting back to the guesthouse, some of us went back to the swimming pool we were at yesterday. I feel like I've adjusted to the time change, but I'm waking up at about 6 am and going to sleep by 9 pm. This is likely due to the noises in the morning and the lack of things to due at night in Sukhothai.