Phitsanulok

I had come up to Phitsanulok for New Years Eve, not because anything special happens in Phitsanulok but just because I had been invited up there. You can read about NYE here.

The journey up to Phitsanulok was fairly simple. It was New Years so just like back home everything was rammed. I got to the bus station with Aun and all the buses were already packed out. Therefore we had to find one of the private buses going that direction. It was going to cost like a quid more but would get us there a lot quicker than the big public coach. So jumped into a little mini bus and set off on the 5 hour journey to Phitsanulok with my knees against my ears squashed up behind the passenger seat.

We arrived late and night and were picked up from the bus station by 2 of her friends on mopeds. It was the first time I had been on a moped in ages with my massive bag on so was a right struggle. However I knew if I had fallen off my bag would have more than adequately broken my fall. They took us to the Wind Wings bar and I ordered some food. I was present with possibly the hottest dish I have had my whole time in Asia. I could not finish it as every mouth full was just felt like a fork full of pain. Once I had washed the spice away with a few Chang beers I was introduced to the guys there who all had various levels of English but pretty much all of them had enough for me to get by. Then shortly after that I had to retire to my abode as I was bloody knackered.

I was there about 4 days all together I think so also got up to a lot of sight seeing while I was there. First day was the trip to Suckhothai which you can read here and then the rest of the time was spent sampling what Phitsanulok had to offer.

On the first full day in Phitsanulok after day one and our trip to Suckhothai I didn't really get up to much that much. Aun and I were lent a moped for the duration of our stay there by "The Wild Wings" so I felt like a fully fledged member hossing around on my very own Wilds Wings bike haha. It was an absolute life saver though. Not only did we now have a method of transport totally at our disposal for the duration of our stay in Phitsanulok. It was also given to us free of charge saving us a packet. We headed back to where we were staying and chilled out for a bit before we headed out for NYE that night.

The next day being a very slow day after the NYE antics I didn't really get up to that much. I managed to get out of bed around midday to early afternoon and ended up just mopedding around exploring the towns temples and markets and food. One of the things I can most remember about that day is how hot it was. I was sweating my head off more than usual for some reason and was buying drinks every 5 minutes! I visited the normal selection of Buddhas, shrines and anything else that is normally associated with temples. They were all very busy as most of the Thai's had the day off as it was New Years Day and had come to the temples to pray and be blessed (is that the right term?) by the monks with water. I am assuming to wash away bad spirits for the new year and all that kind of things. As we had the ped we hossed all over the place from temple to temple. I think at some points we were just driving around for the hell of it just to see what we could find. I have no idea how many miles we did that day but it definitely was a lot. At one point we ended up quite far out of the city amongst a load of rice paddy field which obviously was idea conditions for a landscape photo taking session.

That night predictably ended with a session at "The Wild Wings" bar with the usual games of pool. However Aun and I also went to the Korean style BBQ next door. Where you get to cook you own meat on a hot plate/griddle thing in the middle of the table. Whenever endless amounts of meat is put in front of my I always eat far too much and by the time I had finished felt horrendously uncomfortable. I also sampled chicken liver for the first time. I can safely say it will be the last time as well.

The next day once again relied heavily on where our moped could take us. It just so happened that it could take us on roughly a 3 hour trip along a single road stopping at about 3 or 4 waterfalls along the way. To be honest they all sort of blurred into one. One we stopped at was almost Thailand's answer to Vang Vein. There was hundreds of Thais' bobbing up and down in the water on tubes floating along peacefully in the January sun. It was about a million miles away from the chaos that I was sure was happening in Vang Vien. Another one we went to we got there just that little bit too late that they were no longer letting people in. However for some reason the security guard took pity on us and let us in anyway. The best bit about this was that pretty much everyone else had gone so we had the whole place to ourselves. We spent again here taking photos of the Waterfall and just generally enjoying a bit of peace and quiet. Unfortunately though it started to get dark and we had quite a long journey back to Phitsanulok a head of us so thought it was best we made a move. So we jumped back on our ped and made the journey back home.

I had a great time in Phitsanulok it was a very lazy few days spent eating lots and hossing around on a moped a lot. I have to say a massive thank you to Aun's friends who made me feel so welcome while I was there and really did go out of their way to give me a good time while I was there. Wild Wings was awesome and I was so sad to be saying goodbye to the place. I don't think I will ever make it out there again but who knows. I thought I would be home by now so no idea what the future will bring. Either way I have left with some great memories and a New Years Eve I will remember for the rest of my life.

Oh also the owners of Sa Tang, the dog that died on NYE brought a new dog to file the void Sa Tang left behind. You can see me being introduced to the new dog at the very bottom haha





























04/01/10