Thursday, October 28th, 2021
4:25 a.m. Room 307, FIG Boutique Hotel
Kamphaeng Phet, Thailand
This will probably be my last day in Kamphaeng Phet. I could easily stay longer, but I will try to think of it as my last day and live it as if that were true. I’ve been considering going to Sukhothai after Kamphaeng Phet. It makes sense to do that, since Sukhothai is so strongly related to the history that I’ve been exploring here. Plus, it is about 83 kilometers away, which isn’t terribly far. My one concern is that since I’ve been spending so much time with the ruins of Kamphaeng Phet that I might not appreciate the ruins of Sukhothai. It might be too much history and too many ruins all at once. But I think I will still go there. I don’t need to spend a week there, as I have done here. I can spend just a couple of days and not feel like I have to see absolutely everything.
The last time I made a note here in my journal, I was on my way to the first section of the Historical Park. At that time, I don’t think I fully understood how the park was organized, but I understand it now. The official Historical Park is divided into two sections: the larger Khet Aranyik (or Forest District) outside of town, and the smaller Khet Nai (or Inner District) inside the city itself. My understanding is that the monks from that period were divided into two groups. One group was more of a meditative bunch, and they tended to isolate themselves at the temples in the forest. The other group was more engaged with the local community, and they lived at the temples inside the city.
I noticed on my various maps that there were two places where I could enter the Forest District. But I wasn’t sure which one was the main entrance. I knew there was a visitor center at the main entrance, and I wanted to go there. After some Google Mapping, I thought I knew which was which, and I hopped on my scooter and headed there once breakfast was over and I got organized with all my various cameras. I’m still recording my experiences in three different ways in total: 1) By writing in this journal; 2) By taking video of the experience; and 3) By running the Relive app and taking pictures for it. I’m enjoying Relive very much, but it does introduce one more layer of complexity to my technological life, and it takes some extra time to get organized.
The Forest District was far enough away and it was extensive enough that having a scooter is essential. It really is the only way to truly experience the history of Kamphaeng Phet, particularly if the sun is beating down. I guess if I was bike touring, that would be okay, too. I would have my bicycle for getting around. That would be physically more demanding, but it might even be more enjoyable than riding a scooter. But I have no idea how you would do this kind of thing without transportation of some kind. You definitely couldn’t walk there. Just walking around inside the park itself would be exhausting. It turns out that they do have some kind of guided tour on electric vehicles, but I don’t know how that is scheduled, how much it costs, or whether it would be enjoyable.
At the main entrance, I was given the choice to buy a ticket for just the Forest District for 100 baht or a ticket for both the Forest and Inner districts for 150 baht. But it wasn’t clear to me what the time limit was for that. My plan was to visit only the Forest District that day, so unless the combination ticket was valid for several days, it wouldn’t do me any good. I got the 100-baht ticket. I wasn’t asked to show my passport (which is lucky, since I had neglected to bring it). Nor was I asked about a vaccine certificate (which is equally lucky, since I don’t have it yet). There was much sanitizing, of course. Even the 100-baht note I tried to hand the woman was placed inside a basket and sprayed with sanitizer before she would touch it.
Up until that point, I still had no idea how one got around the park. I was assuming, in fact, that I would be required to park my scooter at the entrance parking lot and then continue on foot. However, it turned out that the park had an extensive network of smooth, high quality roads, and I was free to ride my scooter anywhere I wished. The only issue with that is that sometimes it wasn’t clear where I could park my scooter. Larger temple ruins, such as Wat Chang Rob, had clear parking areas for vehicles. Wat Chang Rob even had its own set of very nice bathrooms. But other temple ruins had no parking area attached, and I had no choice but to park my scooter on whatever patch of dirt or grass was available. It seemed like this was what you were supposed to do, and it felt fine, largely because I was usually the only person there. But I wondered how things would work out in busier times when there might be hundreds of people in the park at the same time.
I dropped in on the visitor center first, of course. I had a funny moment at the doors with one cat sitting on the inside of the glass doors and a much larger cat sitting on the outside. It seemed to me that these two cats wanted to get together and play. But I wasn’t sure if this was allowed to happen, so I hesitated to open the doors. What if they were mortal enemies and by opening the door, I caused a major feline battle? But the fat cat on the outside appeared to be quite friendly and relaxed, and I eventually opened the door. I laughed when the cat on the outside just trotted inside and the cat on the inside trotted past to go outside. They completely ignored each other. They were just like cats all over the world that always seem to want to go to the other side of whatever door they find. Cats just always want to be somewhere else.
There wasn’t a great deal inside this visitor center, if I’m being honest. There was a large-scale model of the park, but it didn’t show very much. If I remember right, it simply had little lights showing the location of various attractions around Kamphaeng Phet. And the main display in the inner room wasn’t about the Sukhothai Kingdom or even the Historical Park at all. It was almost entirely about prehistoric times. There was no additional information about the temple ruins inside the park at all. That surprised me. The exhibits about the prehistoric era and then the Dvararati era matched the information I saw at the National Museum, so I believe the two are strongly connected. But focusing on that older period in history seemed odd to me. I was expecting more in-depth information about what I was going to see inside the park itself.
However, I still thought it was worthwhile. And I asked the young man at the information counter if I could ask him some questions for my YouTube video. He was willing to do that, and I tried to get the two of us on video. This was only the second time I’d attempted this, so I imagine it won’t turn out that great. Plus, my questions were a little bit disingenuous, because I already knew the answer to most of them. I didn’t want to hit him with tough questions that he would struggle with answering in English. So I asked him simple questions about which temples I should visit and what the names of these temples meant. I already knew which three temples were the main attractions (Wat Chang Rob; Wat Phra Si Iriyabot; Wat Phra Non), what was special about each one, and what each name meant, but I asked him anyway. I think capturing that little conversation on video went okay. I haven’t reviewed the video yet, but I’m hoping it isn’t too terribly amateurish.
Knowing my own habits and tendencies, I decided beforehand to limit my explorations. I went straight to the most well-known and the most elaborate of the ruins first. This was Wat Chang Rob. This temple has 68 elephant statues arrayed around the outside. And I knew that I would spend the majority of my time there. It would be my first temple, and I would have the most energy to get excited about everything that I saw. And then I planned to visit the two remaining main attractions. And after that, I would play it by ear. How many more ruins I visited and how long I stayed in Khet Aranyik overall would depend on my mood and energy levels as the day passed.
This section of the Historical Park was a pleasant surprise. I was pleased with just about every aspect of my visit. The park was much more modern and well-organized than I expected, with nice bathrooms, nice roads, lots of information in English, and a generous sprinkling of QR codes for even more information. The setting was park-like with wide open spaces underneath hundreds of shady trees. The temple ruins themselves were fascinating, and the trio of main attractions were perfect in the way they contrasted each other with different styles. Wat Chang Rob was all about the elephant statues. Wat Phra Si Iriyabot was all about the remains of the four large Buddha statues in the four classic postures: sitting; standing; walking; and reclining. And Wat Phra Non was all about the massive laterite pillars. The enduring image I came away with was of the four Buddha statues at Wat Phra Si Iriyabot. That particular spot made the largest impression on me.
The one major deficiency for me was the lack of information about how these temples operated and how they actually looked originally. It was pretty clear that the ruins I was seeing had very little in common with how the temples looked in their original condition. All of the outer coverings with all the artistic detail had washed away long ago. Only the bare bones of the laterite structures remained. And as a casual visitor, I was enthralled by those laterite bare bones. The park as a whole had very much of a romantic Lara Croft: Tomb Raider vibe. I thought the laterite was beautiful. But I was also curious what these temples might have looked like before the centuries of time had taken their toll. But I didn’t encounter a single image or artist’s rendition of their original appearance. Plus, I came away with zero idea of how this vast area of dozens of major temples operated. How many monks lived there? Who else lived there? How did they live? How did they feed themselves? What did they do all day? If I had a time machine and could go back to this forest of temples in 1347 A.D., what would I see? Little in the park conveyed any of that information to me. I guess that is a failing in me. I need a better imagination.
From the timestamps on all my various media, I can see that I spent just over four hours in the park itself. And that time included the visitor center, the three major temple ruins, and a bit of time spread out over some smaller ruins. Before my visit, I pictured myself dropping by a nice coffee shop afterwards, but I was too worn out to really enjoy that, so I simply rode back to my hotel to shower and relax. For dinner, I returned to Fatboy’s Burger Bar, and I had their Chicken Caesar Salad plus fries and yet another Pineapple Italian Soda. That was a perfect way to end the day, particularly since I had figured out a fast and fun pathway through the confusing roads of Kamphaeng Phet to get there.
Time appeared to be passing by quickly, and I started to consider how much longer I wanted to stay in Kamphaeng Phet. My Mystery Benefactor had booked three nights for me at the FIG Boutique Hotel. Those three nights were coming to an end, and as I was thinking about staying in Kamphaeng Phet longer, I started looking at my options for another place to stay. Left to my own devices, I would normally stay in a more budget-friendly place. And Kamphaeng Phet had a couple of those. There was Three J Guest House, and I assumed that I would end up there. This traditional backpacker guesthouse was even located on the same road as Fatboy’s Burger Bar, and I passed it all the time, so I knew exactly where it was. Once I did some research, I thought that maybe there might be a problem with staying there. Thailand just doesn’t seem to be good value when it comes to these low-budget places. The cheap room they offered still cost 300 baht per night, and from pictures, that room looked to be small to the point of being tiny and cramped. Plus, staying in that room meant using a shared bathroom down the hall. I have absolutely no problem with tiny, cramped living spaces and shared bathrooms. Much, if not most, of my life has been spent living that life. But 300 baht for that seems expensive. That seems like a 150-baht/night existence to me.
The alternative Paradise Resort started to look better to me the more I looked into it. From the outside, Three J looked cluttered and small and closed-off. Every time I rode past, all I saw were closed gates and closed doors. Even their parking area was separate and down the street and behind a locked gate. It didn’t have a welcoming vibe from the outside appearance. But pictures of the Paradise Resort showed a wide-open place, where you simply ride your scooter right up to the door of your room. I liked the spaciousness I saw in the pictures. It looked easier to come and go as you please and be left alone. In the end, I didn’t need to do all this legwork. My Mystery Benefactor, upon hearing about my desire to stay in Kamphaeng Phet longer, booked three more nights for me at the FIG. I was very grateful for that, as it meant I didn’t have to spend a large part of one day just packing up and moving to a new place. As I wrote before, compared to a place like the SOHO, the FIG seems overpriced. But it is still an extremely comfortable place for someone like me. It offers far more luxury and comfort than I am accustomed to. So I’m extremely happy to stay here.
The following day was a bit of a catch-up-with-my-life day. I didn’t go out exploring the attractions of Kamphaeng Phet hardly at all. As usual, I’m falling way behind in terms of editing and uploading YouTube videos of my experiences. I hadn’t even posted a video from the very first day of this road trip yet. And I wanted to take a day and spend it entirely on working on some videos and other things. I did manage, eventually, to complete one video and upload it. But I didn’t accomplish nearly as much as I’d hoped. Editing video is a black hole sucking in all the time you have available. It was still an enjoyable day, though. It was actually a great day. The irony is that I really enjoy editing video and all the technical stuff. It only becomes a problem when there isn’t enough time in a day to live your life, record your life, AND produce a video of that experience. The production of an actual video is the part that suffers.
My plan for yesterday was to visit Khet Nai, which is the Inner District of the Historical Park. It is much smaller than the Forest District. I believe it contains two major temple ruins and then a special shrine to Shiva. However, just as I was getting on my scooter to go to the park, I decided to fire up the Relive app and a GoPro and ride around the city a bit. I thought it would be interesting to capture a bit of what the streets of Kamphaeng Phet looked like in a time lapse and post that as a separate video. And that little project started to get bigger and bigger until I spent most of the day on it. And I never made it inside the Historical Park at all. And I don’t regret that at all. I was able to zoom around so much of Kamphaeng Phet and see so much and do it very quickly.
I followed my usual route into the city’s downtown, but on the way, I passed a supremely ornate temple called Wat Sedej. I pulled my scooter into the gates and rode briefly around the interior of the complex. I treated this video experience much as I treated my time lapse video of my ride from Mae Sot to Umphang. By that, I mean I deliberately stopped at what I thought were interesting sights and let the GoPro linger there for about ten seconds. Since I was filming at 2X speed, those ten seconds would translate into five seconds of video. The final video should be an interesting mix of just riding through the streets, peppered with brief five-second video clips of various attractions. After Wat Sedej, I stopped at the main clock tower. From there, I entered the area enclosed by the old city walls. I dropped by the Thai House Museum, the National Museum, and the Historical Park, and then I rode around the entire perimeter of the old city walls before crossing the bridge across the Ping River to visit the famous Wat Phra Borommathat and some of the other ruins in Nakhon Chum. The Wat Phra Borommathat is interesting because at 600 years old, it is just as old as many of the temple ruins in the Historical Park. Yet, it is in pristine and modern condition. I don’t know what explains that. Why is this temple in perfect condition while the others are little more than laterite ruins?
From Nakhon Chum, I crossed back over the Ping River and rode south along the river for a while. I thought I could ride through some market areas there, along the Walking Street, and onto an island, but none of that was open or operational. But the video of just the river scenery will probably be nice. And, finally, I rode all the way back to the FIG Boutique Hotel, following some of the more modern and commercial streets. The entire video, assuming I ever find the time to complete it, should provide a nice representative view of what Kamphaeng Phet the city is like. According to Relive, what was supposed to be a short ride turned into a journey of three hours and ten minutes covering nearly forty kilometers of riding without ever leaving city limits.
Once I finished this video experiment, I was pretty much done for the day. There was no way I could summon the energy to visit the Historical Park’s Inner District. That was put off until the next day, which is today. Instead, I went to the nearby Robinson Lifestyle shopping center. I thought about actually shooting a video about this shopping mall. And I would have done it except that I knew I would never find the time to edit the video. Shooting video is the easy part. The time required for editing is the bottleneck in the process. But while I was there, I had a great time. The mall even had a camera store with actual cameras and camera gear on display. I hadn’t seen a real camera store in the entire year and a half that I’ve been in Thailand. They even sold my dream cameras: the OM-D E-M5 III; the Canon G7X III; the Sony RX100 VII; and others. They sold the DJI Mini 2 drone. They even had GoPro accessories. I was in heaven for a brief time, and I mentally added up the prices I saw on display and wondered if I could afford anything.
I had two main reasons for going to the mall. I thought it wouldn’t be a bad idea to buy more memory cards. I really need more memory and faster memory cards. Unfortunately, the shops there didn’t have what I needed. They had a better selection than any stores in Mae Sot (which carry next to nothing), but they still didn’t have the 512 GB cards I was interested in. The largest in stock was 256 GB. But I didn’t walk out of the mall empty handed. In a fit of what might be madness, I bought a kettle. I was just missing my morning coffee so much. And I get super annoyed at the coffee being served in coffee shops. When I went to the mall, I went straight to a convenient Mr. Donut outlet to get a coffee. And after much hullabaloo, they handed me a paper cup that had next to nothing in it. It was just foam. When I picked up the cup, I nearly tossed it into the air by accident. I was expecting some resistance in the form of actual coffee liquid in the cup, but it was pretty much empty. And that annoyed me so much that when I saw a pretty good kettle on sale for 209 baht, I bought it. How could I resist? It is a bit too large to reasonably carry around in a backpack. But on a scooter, it is still okay. I have no idea how long I will be able to use it. But even if I use it for just the two days that I might stay here at the FIG, I’ll be happy I bought it. I had coffee last night and coffee this morning, and I was so happy. This 209-baht kettle has already paid for itself. I’ll definitely take it with me when I leave Kamphaeng Phet, but I could just as easily leave it here and still be happy that I bought it.
And what about today? While I have big plans, I’m not sure I can deliver on those plans. But my idea is to make as many as five separate videos. Short videos. I want to visit Khet Nai and the Thai House Museum and make videos about those two places. But I might also revisit the City Walls and the famous temple in Nakhon Chum and make videos about them. And there is a banana market about 17 kilometers outside of town. Kamphaeng Phet is famous for its tasty bananas, and visiting this market might be a nice way to find out about that. That could also be a waste of time. But I won’t know if I don’t go.
The other big news from yesterday is that DJI finally officially released the Action 2 camera. YouTube is abuzz with early breathless reviews. I am less convinced. Personally, I dislike the modular approach. The Media Mod approach that GoPro briefly adopted nearly destroyed that camera, and this decision by DJI will probably end up destroying the Action line. But I’m still enjoying finding out about this new camera. It’s design is a novel concept.
It is now 6:55 a.m., and breakfast will soon be ready downstairs. If I want to have any hope of shooting a lot of video today, I have to get ready and get organized.