Spirit Night and Sukhothai Museum

Hold on to your hats, ladies and gents, because I have a ton to update you all on! It has been a whirlwind of a week, and I imagine things are going to be pretty crazy from now on as we try to cram all our favorite things into these last four weeks left in Thailand. Not to mention finals (I'm still a student, after all). Wow. It's surreal. Anyway, the Saturday night before we left for Sukhothai and Bangkok we went over to the Chiang Mai University stadium to check out sports day and spirit night. Sort of like an American homecoming celebration, each faculty (department) competes in sports during the day and then does a school spirit performance in the evening - described to me initially as a cheer-leading-type competition. What they did went far above and beyond cheer-leading, though. Each faculty put on a multimedia performance with costumes, dancers, music, giant set pieces, chanting, choreography, and props. Each faculty did a different theme, like "Phantom of the Opera" or "Aladdin's Genie in the Lamp."

We were actually down in the field while each performance was up in the bleachers, so we sort of shuffled around in an enormous crowd for each performance. I was just blown away by the amount of time and energy put into each of the performances - there really isn't anything like it in the United States, at least not at a university level like that. It was hard to get pictures, but this should give you a general idea of what it was like.

This performance was by the Faculty of Medicine, which had up until this competition had a multi-year winning streak. Regardless, I thought each faculty did an amazing job and was so glad I went.

The next morning we left bright and early for the historical city of Sukhothai. Three of my friends and I lucked out and got a van with just two other professors and the driver in it, so we had plenty of space to read, nap, and talk to each other. We got hung up on car games and riddles, so the time passed pretty quickly. By mid-afternoon we made it to the Sukhothai museum, which gave us some background information before visiting the actual historical park the next day. It was full of interesting artifacts and gave me a better idea of how the Sukhothai kingdom fit into Thailand's history. The important thing about Sukhothai is that is existed during a time of piece so that art and architecture could flourish, leaving the awesome site for us to see today.

The entrance to the main part of the historical site was lavishly decorated in anticipation for the Loi Krathong festival the next weekend, an important Buddhist holiday. I had my own plans for Loi Krathong, as you will see in a later post, but it would have been neat to celebrate in the old city among the beautiful temples. 

It was a little late in the day to start in on visiting the actual temples, so we headed over to our hotel in the new area of Sukhothai to find an early dinner and rest up for the next day. I had an amazing raspberry Italian soda with dinner, and the proceeded to fall asleep at 6 pm (guess sitting in a van all day tuckered me out!). I needed the sleep for the adventures to come the next day!