Standard After Ayutthaya we headed off on a 6-hour bus journey to Sukhothai, which was, to be honest, not dissimilar to Ayutthaya.
We were apparently inadvertently doing a tour of all the old capitals of Thailand. This time the ruins were more collected within a smoothly run park, which we hired bicycles again to cycle round.
The day was scorching and we grabbed brief respites under the trees that lined the paths we cycled round. It was a nice interlude in our journey north to Chiang Mai. This time the bus was rammed and we stood for the first part of the journey until seats freed up. There after we crashed out, unfortunately missing the undoubtedly stunning countryside that rolled out by the side of our sleeping eyes.
We began the visit fairly early the next morning with James, his wife Fern and their ridiculously gorgeous 6month old baby, Leila. We chattered all the two and half hour journey up to the first site about life in Thailand, life in China and about the issues the projects address and are working towards addressing. He told us about how many of the children are sold by their parents either by lack of understanding or because of drug or alcohol addictions.
Some were there because one or both parents were abusive, some escaped with an equally suffering parent. One of the team was known on the grapevine for his skills in seeking out and negotiating the release of missing children in these circumstances. The work was done by involving the whole community and establishing viable alternatives to selling children [fish farming and lime or orange tree groves] β providing jobs and working with local people to manage aspects of the projects.
