A Sense of Awe

A Sense of Awe, originally uploaded by Robbi Baba.

We arrived in Old Sukhothai pretty worn out. I had spent some time and many coins calling guest houses from the train station. Our taxi driver took us around to his relative's places, but we ended up going with The Orchid Hibiscus which was much closer to the park. And even though it was much more expensive than I had planned on, it had a nice pool and an unforgettable Italian host named Paulo.

He pronounced his name Paaaawwwlohhh and would waggle his big eyebrows at the girls. He had a very comical and dramatic way of speaking and with his thick Italian accent we weren't always sure what the hell he was saying.

But we were very glad we'd chosen his guesthouse, as Krista came down with a very nasty stomach problem the next morning. The poor fool had eaten the food being served on the train! It was like airline food, only worse. Train food. I don't know why she ate it but she did and got horribly ill, heaving her guts out in Paulo's nice clean western style toilet. It didn't last long but it left her weak and shaken.

I don't want to give the impression that the Orchid Hibiscus was paradisial. We were lodged in a big 'family house' with two single beds downstairs and two doubles upstairs. Somehow I ended up downstairs with Joyce. We froze all night with the air con blasting away while upstairs they were sweltering. And the traditional Thai beds were rock hard and the traditional shower arrangement meant the whole bathroom would get soaked whenever anyone took a shower.
But it was so much nicer than the places we'd seen on the way over! We were happy enough.

After the worst had passed for Krista we ended up leaving her in peace and quiet (or so we thought) to recover while we went off to explore the ruins in the oppressive heat of the day.

Turns out that Old Sukhothai was about to have an election. And that means that the candidates send out these crazy sound trucks with massive speakers and huge billboards showing their scowling faces. The speakers blare out unbelievalby loud angry sounding speeches alternating with horrible syrupy music. It really is phenomenal. I can't even imagine why anyone would vote for the bastards who hire these trucks. But I guess all the candidates do.

Poor Krista got woken up by one of these awful trucks coming down the lane. She thought the revolution had arrived and men with machine guns would be bursting into the room any moment. Her own personal low point.

Meanwhile we were having our sense of awe developed to new levels. The US is such a young country.