What could be better than bike riding around ruins in Sukhothai...?

... well other than the Thai food of course!

After our adventures in cooking and with elephants, we decided to explore the old city of Sukhothai, a city five hours south of Chiang Mai and home to ancient ruins. These ruins were once the capital of the Sukhothai Kingdom during the 13th and 14th centuries, and are now a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Armed with our cameras, we rented bikes for the day (and at just under a dollar, it was a steal!) and cycled around the ruins.

What surprised us was that there were 193 ruins within such a small area (the old city covers only 2km by 1.6km). Fortunately, this made traveling around the grounds simple and it was easy to see absolutely everything.

It was nice to be reminded how much fun it is to ride a bike! Riding around, feeling the wind in my hair and just enjoying the gorgeous (although hot!) day was incredible.

Me, looking happy and riding my bike

Erica, taking a break from the admiring the scenery to pose for a picture

Our guesthouse for this leg of the trip was quite different from where we stayed in Chiang Mai. We slept in a traditional wooden Thai chalet that was essentially open to the elements. It was neat in this regard as we got to sleep under a mosquito net. We met some friendly creatures (namely a frog and gecko), but we also met some not so friendly creatures (cockroaches!). One night, I had made sure that the mosquito netting was securely fastened and was almost drifting off to sleep when I spotted a creature scurrying across our bed in the corner of my eye. Needless to say, I screamed bloody murder and scared the hell out of Erica who was calmly reading next to me. Not my finest hour, but a memory that will be hard to forget!

The dubious road we wandered down in search of our guesthouse in Sukhothai

At the end of our stay, our host kindly offered to take us to the bus station. Being backpackers, and not having loads of money to spend on luxuries like cabs, we accepted. We walked outside, both with carry on bags and purses, to realize that our mode of transport was, well...  a motorbike.

The engine revved and our host gestured for us to climb on board as if this was something that happened all the time. Being the two polite Canadians girls that we are, we decided to make this work. After some initial struggles with our baggage and placement of limbs, we climbed on board. One of the strangest yet exhilarating rides of this trip (and a definite ab workout!)