This conclusion covers both Sukhothai and Chaing Rai, the parts of a two week tour. Chiang Rai was to be the general name of this tour but it was decided to divide it due to a longer spell spent in Sukhothai Province. It soon became clear that the two historical parks in Sukhothai were yielding vast amounts of data and there was a case for prioritising this interesting area. It wasn’t till the 6th day that I arrived in Chiang Rai leaving just about a week on tour in the province. It wasn’t enough! But what I managed to achieve was quite remarkable.
Visiting the historical parks in Sukhothai was always an objective as they represented a huge gap in my coverage of ancient sites in Thailand. Quite how much effort I would put into the sites however was beyond my thinking at the time as when I reached Chiang Saen there was another big helping in store. The tour made me aware of just how important the ancient history of this region had become to me and I was always going to struggle to find a balance that would ease my coverage to more general themes. But in the end I make no apology as I managed to trace the ancestry of Thai people through the ages and cover two very important kingdoms of the old (medieval) world.
The two kingdoms would eventually merge in the 19th Century but each had struggles of its own. Sukhothai, representing the birth of the nation, would witness the decline of the powerful Khmer Empire that had controlled much of Thailand. This allowed new kingdoms to fill the void and eventually merge. With regards to Chiang Saen, this powerful city state in the Lanna kingdom would have its own problem with the Burmese who had occupied much of the northern territories of Thailand. The Lanna Kingdom would eventually expel the Burmese but not without help from Bangkok. Severely weakened by wars, Lanna would eventually submit to Bangkok, bringing peace to the country at last.
While to me the expedition to the ruins was something of an obsession, I did enjoy immensely, the couple of days, I spent in the mountains of Chiang Rai. Doi Tung is quite touristy but well worth a visit but I much preferred the relative isolation of Mae Salong. This had everything for me. As well as breathtaking scenery there is history and culture with a fantastic insight into land use for growing coffee, tea and other cash crops here, far removed from much of the rest of Thailand; certainly worth a revisit.
The cost of this tour came within budget. About 6,000 baht was used on fuel covering 2,500 kilometres, while 6,940 was spent on accommodation. For borrowing the car, I paid 10,000 but some of this will be for future use of the vehicle. The total works out less that 1,000 baht per day per person. That’s one of the reasons I love Thailand.