Sukhothai, Thursday

1040 Just getting up. When my goal was 9 and I've been snoozing on it ever since this is hardly great, I suppose it could be a lot worse. Anyway, let's get a move on.

1143 OK, finally leaving hotel...

1608 Sat on songthaew (I think - lorry with benches in back) waiting to go back to New Sukhothai. Pretty successful day. Got one of these out, two other tourists and a local who got off part way, out and it left as soon as I got on. (30 each way.) Rented bike (30 I think) outside park and although I stupidly locked bike up near the ticket checkpoint and had to leave it there when went to buy ticket so was worried would get nicked, it didn't. Cycled round central zone, think I saw just about everything. Camera battery showing 2/3 bars and flicking down to 1 at times but it lasted day.

Wasn't very clear how to get to north zone, but I found an exit in vaguely the right direction and guy guarding it said it lead to north zone. It did, eventually, indirectly, though without GPS I think I would have struggled to find it. Quite a nice ride out there though, stopping to examine some minor ruins occasionally. As per guide book much less formal in north zone, someone was herding cows there, a few tourists but not many.

1701 Had pretty much finished but stopped writing as bus left. We came back via bus terminal, presumably had I known and been prepared to wait I could have got this back to town yesterday.

In hotel room. Fucking moderately-large-by-UK-standards-but-not-some-tropical-horror (maybe 1.5-2 inch leg span) spider on the floor next to bed. Because I'm too nice/scared/don't want guts all over the floor I didn't tread on it. Got glass and was going to put it over it and the fucker bolted under the bedside table. I'm not shitting myself but not very happy.

1707 Bit awkwardly some woman has just turned up to replace the (free) bottled water in the fridge and the towels. I suppose it could have been worse, I could have been in the shower or doing my laundry. I am writing this as much to cover the awkwardness of her being here as because even I think it's interest. She's gone now.

1723 Was contemplating wander into town before lunch, may try it but I hear sounds of public meeting stuff even in hotel grounds so I may not. I suppose doesn't hurt to try, if I get out not too late. Got a Magnum and a litre of pomegranate juice on way back (drunk about half) but otherwise not eaten all day so don't want to eat too late.

1740 Done bit of laundry, should probably be thinking of heading out soon.

1822 At Chopper Bar. Ordered tom yam kai and also fried squid with green peppers and rice. It's muggy here, place is quite busy (v touristy as expected, not a problem) and my table doesn't have fan over it. Tis OK. Having coke zero now, may have two or three beers after. Plan tomorrow is to check out and check straight in elsewhere, then see if I can rent a bike for that 16km round trip. May web search bike rental here tonight, guide book not v helpful, just says 'a few guesthouses in town' do it.

1917 Food pretty good, though I can't get used to this business of just mixing indigestible stalks of something into the tom yam. I keep getting them as I eat the rest. Anyway, I feel pretty stuffed actually, will get a beer if I can.

Music not fantastic but OK. Vaguely countryish rock mostly. "Hitching a ride" (Pilot?) now and we had "Yellow River" (Christie?) earlier. Also Billy Joel's "You may be right" and Elton John's "Crocodile Rock". Better than place last night anyway.

1920 "Sugar sugar". One of the worst songs ever written. Perhaps that's unfair, but meh.

Just got bill instead of beer but corrected mistake. I did think she didn't understand me when I ordered, and I was right.

Bloke with guitar just got up on some wagon which evidently serves as a stage. Still, live music, let's give it a go.

2037 Quite good really, but somehow he is background music. I think he is singing in Thai, it sounded quite mournful. No one applauded him once and no one (including me) sat and watched him play, as far as I could tell. A shame as he can obviously play to a fair standard.

Nearly finished first beer, will definitely have at least one more. Feeling a little jittery re minor uncertainty tomorrow and more so about what to do/where to go/how to get there on Saturday, but I guess I can worry about that tomorrow evening.

2154 Going to have a third beer, sod it. Feel slightly drunk but not really. If I have to battle Shelob on my return home I could do with a little Dutch courage. ;-) I jest, it's only that I am super aware of it. I don't see a big problem with being up 10am ish to do the checkout etc (not that I think the deadline is that early) and if (it is an if) I can find a bicycle rental place a 16km round trip is an easy afternoon, no more.

2204 The floor at least just here is very 'loose'. Every time anyone walks past it vibrates my chair, which I think is at an angle anyway. Musician still playing, the guy has stamina.

2217 Only just noticed as they are sliding corrugated ironish panels across that my table was in fact open to the sky, the upstairs terrace which the bar consists of was open at the back as well as the front, just covered in middle. Musician still going. Wondering if they are closing but some people just came in and maybe 10-20 people here. Not a big deal anyway, I am not rushing this beer but no more after this. May try to have quiet night in tomorrow (depending on what I am required to do to get food and the temptation it may expose me too) and then depending on my onward travel plans will go somewhere not too remote Saturday and have Saturday night out there. If I 'miss' the weekend not a big deal. I expect Chiang Mai to be pretty lively and if not there are lots of weekends to come.

2240 Got bill. 505, paying with a 1000 as not sure have sufficient smaller bills nor would want to waste them. That is about right, 3 beers at 80 and 2 dishes at 80/90 each plus rice. Made it about 560 with tip, waitress stood over me so didn't feel too able to calculate precisely. Not finished beer yet but nearly so.

2243 Musician finally finished, he did get a poor round of applause from the smallish remaining clientele.

2247 Will say that today's cycling was not the extreme (for me) exertion I expected, it was hot but not that badly so and generally pretty nice, you get a breeze from moving and especially in the shace it was very pleasant. If I am able to do the 16km round trip tomorrow I don't expect it to kill me but possibly be a bit more strenuous. But my original thought that I would want/need a day to recuperate between the two days of cycling was overkill, Old Sukhothai is simply not as wild and scattered as I expected, at least not the north and central zones.

Bladder bursting a bit despite a trip to bog before this third beer. Am oddly reluctant to use bog here again, given hotel is about two minutes if that up the road. Vamos a ver.

2259 Thank fuck I used the bar bog. The hotel is 30 seconds down the road and the gates are locked. It is 11pm. No one told me about a curfew. 11 fucking pm. No one is responding to my semi-polite hellos over the gate. I could possibly climb over the thing but am reluctant to do so at this stage. For fuck's sake. Cannot reiterate how glad I am I followed the 'bird in the hand is worth two in the bush' approach to toilets.

2306 In my room. I made a half-hearted experimental effort to jump the gate; it wasn't super successful, though I think I might have had some chance of getting over had I really exerted myself and thrown dignity to the winds. Fortunately some lurking burglarious instinct in my mind encouraged me to feel for a latch on the other side of the gate (over the driveway, not the side door to the path) and it turned out the thing wouldn't slide because a non-locked padlock was holding the gate to the post. So I got in OK, but FFS, what a fucking welcome back and what an unnecessary source of stress. As if that would keep out a professional miscreant while just fucking over the legitimate guest. I can't strictly speaking hold them responsible for being the first place in Thailand I've had spider problems but this is a bit shit. An outright 'we warned you' curfew might be OK - though at this price maybe not, it's not super pricey but it's not bargain basement either - but this, at 11pm as well, which I really don't think is particularly late, is decidedly off. As it happened it didn't come to it but good job I'm not seriously pissed lest I had to explain myself to anyone.

2339 Laptop can see wifi but unable to connect, which is worse than last night. FFS.

2351 Despite having been here, what, a week or so and generally being a bit lax with suncream, and also despite having put some on this morning, I've managed to get quite heavily sunburned on the left side of my neck, there is a huge red patch which stops where T-shirt evidently came to. It isn't too painful (or at all, yet, actually) and I always make this mistake and it's fine, but I note it a) for the hell of it and b) to wonder why it's only on the left side, presumably I would have been equally slack about suncream on both sides of neck, though maybe not, and I can't imagine I spent more time facing one way than another today. Meh.

While I am bitching about this place, I noticed last nights that the bedsheets while super white and clean have this weird smell. It's a sort of clean smell, like they've just used some slightly freaky detergent, but I don't like it very much and it's a little offputting.

0014 Anyway, bed. Fingers crossed for an early start and a spider-free night.