We saw a lot of temple ruins yesterday in Sukhothai. We biked the ten miles there at the hottest part of the day, 2 pm, and Kyle took his shirt off, which we later learned can incur a fine of 2000 Baht if the wrong police man sees you! But we made it. And it was incredible. Definitely reminiscent of Macchu Piccu, I mean as in bringing about the similar sort of feelings, of ancient-ness, of history, of richness, the magic of being human. But these ruins, which were specifically temple ruins, held a distinct power. Maybe a lot of it was the Buddha images, huge, sitting, standing stone giants all around, that humanity so clearly present. But something about the layout, the design, everything, just felt more spiritual and appropriate and beautiful. The sprawl, five huge temples and various shrines in a few kilometer block, and also the fineness of the architecture.

Macchu Piccu I remember was impressive and astounding a lot of the time for the magnitude of its composite pieces. Giant, giant bricks as big as boulders made perfectly square and stacked ten high and a hundred long, perfectly level. But the other thing of it was, Macchu Piccu was a whole city and definitely seemed like it too. There was grandeur and elegance sure, but also there were those areas, and rooms where it seemed like, Oh, this is where they stored the poop maybe, or Yeah, that could hold a lot of corn. These Buddhist ruins didn't feel that way, although I think the monks did have little bungalows in and among the structures. Maybe it was just the use of more small bricks in layering up the huge towers, or just simply the specifically Asian style that I prefer aesthetically. Either way, I felt at peace and wonder-swept being there, and hope we get to see more like it before we leave.


We're in Chiang Mai tonight and may have spent a lot too much at the night market, but again, it's hard! All sense of proportion is thrown into whach! No, goodness no I won't spend more than two dollars on my dinner! But say, five dollars for that hairbrush, that's reasonable!

We think we're both experiencing a sort of decision-fatigue. I remember something like it when Allison and I got to Lima in Peru. You get exhausted with trying to find the best deal on everything, fighting over every price, waiting to look around more before you decide, and you just start going for it, treating yourself to a little careless liberty. We had chips with bean dip on the way home, after we'd just finished chastising ourselves and each other for how much we'd spent!

Tomorrow we'll make up for it. We won't get any iced coffee! We won't buy any, we won't look for any, we'll never buy any of it any more, never again, we will pretend we never have, and we'll never even think about it again, but we're absolutely gonna buy some tomorrow morning.