Serene Sukhothai

Sawasdee! This Fabulous Journeys post will take you to hot exotic Thailand, to a city that is slightly off the beaten track for tourists who visit Thailand. This city has a great historical significance to Thailand. Because this place is not commonly visited by tourists, you can really feel the real, traditional Thai town without the tourist haunts.

The city of Sukhothai is one of the ancient capitals of the Thai Kingdom. Sukhothai is a UNESCO World Heritage Listed site with all its ancient temples and monuments dedicated to Buddha. The city itself is divided into 2 section: Old Sukhothai and New Sukhothai. Old Sukhothai is where the actual Sukhothai Historical Park (the ancient temples) is located. New Sukhothai is the new commercial and business district of Sukhothai.

Getting to Sukhothai

I arrived in Sukhothai on a direct flight from the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai. It was the start of the rainy season, and a week before I arrived, the area experienced some serious flooding. It was quite evident as the plane was landing, as apparently the airport runway was also flooded and had just been cleared at that time. The airport in Sukhothai is very quaint and well presented. The only airline that services this airport is Bangkok Airways, which is an award-winning regional airline for Asia, and they also built and own the airport.

The Adventure Begins

My adventure started from the time I landed at the airport. I was supposed to stay near the Old Sukhothai. When I took the airport taxi, however, it would only take me up to the New Sukhothai, and to get to the Old Sukhothai, I had to take this public transport called Sawngthaew, which is essentially a converted truck with 2 long benches at the back (facing each other). The Thais are not known for their strict adherence to safety regulations, so this vehicle was overloaded to the brim, to the point that I can hardly get off. The interesting part was, no one can speak English at all! I didn’t know how to tell the driver to stop! Lucky there were a few students who took the ride and are learning some English at their school, so they were able to help me communicate with the driver.

Old Sukhothai

I got off at my accommodation near the Old Sukhothai. The place I stayed at was this small motel which had a lot of Thai character to it. The buildings had the Thai-style roof, and it was beside a small canal. It looked quite picturesque. After checking in, I went for a brief wander towards the Old Sukhothai, in search for the Historical Park. It wasn’t far from my accommodation, a good 15-20 minute walk. I spoke to some of the locals, but I struggled to communicate with them, as none of them understood English, and if they did, it was extremely basic and they couldn’t understand me.

Sukhothai - Wat Si Chum

I eventually found my way to the Historical Park. It’s a really well maintained park, and I’m really impressed about it. Inside are a whole collection of temples and statues of Buddha that used to be the capital of Thailand before it was moved to Ayuttaya, and later Bangkok. There are numerous temples (or Wat, as it is called in Thai) to see, and it is divided into sections. It could take a whole day to go around the park. The park even stretches all the way to the nearby mountains and I only managed to view a segment of those in the mountains.  It is where I found one of the biggest stone statue of Buddha around, and it’s called Wat Si Chum. This is one of the highlights of the entire Historical Park.

I hardly saw any tourists around, and I can only count with my fingers the number of tourists walking around (unless it is truly off peak season, though I still found heaps more tourists in Chiang Mai). By chance I met a group of kiwis who were riding scooters around the park but didn’t have any maps, and are a bit lost. I had to show them where things are, and gave them a copy of my map, as at that point I was already about finished with the park. Well, I guess in the Old Sukhothai, this is the only place worth checking out. Most of the Old Sukhothai is residential.

New Sukhothai

Sukhothai - Dream Cafe

I ventured into the New Sukhothai, as I was curious what it’s like to be in a Thai city that doesn’t get many tourists around. I took the public transport again, but this time, with the help of the hotel staff, I asked them to write in Thai that I want to get off at the Old Sukhothai, near the markets. I just showed this piece of paper to the driver of the sawngthaew, who understood me and happily dropped me off where I wanted.

As I expected, hardly anyone spoke English. It totally different from being in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, where a lot of people can speak English (somehow) and you have a better chance of being able to get around without any problems. I went around the shops, but to be honest, none of them looked interesting. The only thing that fascinated me was how laid back the town was, and how different it is from the rest of the cities in Thailand. People are friendly, I must say, and it was well worth looking around for. I read in the Lonely Planet guidebook that there is this nice cafe called Dream Cafe that served great meals. I went there and the first thing that impressed me was the exquisite 19th century Thai antique decors. This is possibly one of the best finds I had while in the New Sukhothai.

If you have a chance to spend more time in Thailand and want to get out of the busy cities and tourist haunts, you should consider visiting this laid-back ancient city of Sukhothai. It’s a totally different experience from the rest of Thailand, and you get to appreciate the great ancient history of this warm kingdom. There are also other ancient ruins in nearby towns from Sukhothai that are worth visiting, but I just didn’t get the chance to explore them. Though I had some challenges getting around, it has been well worth exploring, and the locals are as warm and friendly as what Thais are known for.
Til the next Fabulous Journeys!

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