Sukhothai Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

City Centers, morning markets, night bazaars, Wats, delicious Thai food, wonderful people, new friends, the North and South, waterfalls and crystal beaches.

The ancient city of Sukhothai was the center of the Thai Nation for about 150 years before the rise of Ayuthaya.  The guidebooks claim this to be the must do historical cultural experience in Thailand.  We arrived here after already having more than our fill of wats and Buddhas so maybe I was biased but personally I found the much larger and more heavily decayed ruins of Ayuthaya to be more impressive.  The remains here are much better preserved and closer together so you...

Sukhothai, like Chiang Mai, is divided into two parts: the Old City and the New City. There are public buses that run back and forth between the two parts of the town. There is about 12km between the two parts and it is advisable to use the public transportation as it gets hot. The new city is where most of the action is. The restaurants are located on that end of town as are most of the internet cafés. The old city has a few restaurants and one internet café (that we saw).   Sukhoth...

The day after we arrived in Sukothai we woke up to a much cooler, clearer day than we expected. This actually made it possible for us to rent bicycles to ride around the historical park. Otherwise we were contemplating renting motorbikes for touring the park. Perhaps not as nostalgic as push bikes, but then again there's nothing nostalgic about heat stroke. I'm really glad that it did cool down as riding around on crappy bicycles really added to the ambience of the experience. Absolutely love...

Well the bus ended up being late so we didn't get to Sukothai until almost ten p.m. and of course it was raining. We were the only farang (a sometimes humorous, sometimes derogatory term for foreigners) and immediately approached by an older man who was a Saamlaw driver. Saamlaw are kind of like tuk tuks but the "cab" is really a cart in front of a motorcycle.  We knew the fare was supposed to be around 40 Baht, so the game started when he told us it was 100 Baht. All the other drivers...

If you've seen one set of Thai ruins, you've seen them all. Call me a philistine, but that's how I felt about the remains of Sukhothai's old city: if you're not really into this sort of thing then there's really no need to see Sukhothai and Ayutthaya. And I'm not really into this sort of thing. I'm into football, beer and Bob Dylan.The town hadn't shown me its best face when I arrived, either. I got off the bus from Tak in the early evening and asked a tuk-tuk driver to take me into town. Nat...

Wat Thawet, about 8 km north east of Sukhothai is not that much of a special place in itself, although to me it gave a view to another sight on images of the Buddha. The Wat is a nice aiming point taking a bycicle drive from Sukhothai, going over dusty roads between bananatrees, by the water, and really in the middle of more remoted roads. You feel really more between locals as you might have imagined them before you realized that also these countries had development. Being so close to the ci...

We decided to try and avoid the worst of the days heat by making the trip from Phitsanulok to Sukhothai nice and early. Unfortunately the fact is that the heat never really goes away this time of year in Central Thailand so even at 7am the air was hot and humid. We had our free breakfast at the Lithai Guesthouse which was much better than expected given the room was so cheap then checked out and headed off to the bus station. The station is a few kilometers out of town; so we had to haggle wi...

People i met here who contributed to, and improved my trip: Julia (Russia), Teresa (England) On the bus ride up to Sukothai we met an English woman called Teresa and as we had similar plans, decided to go and stay in the same guesthouse. The following day we were up bright and early and the 3 of us met for breakfast, before catching a sawngthaew to the nearby ruins. Once there, we reverted to pedal power and each hired a bicycle to tour the site. Julia got the lucky break, scoring a pin...

On our way to Sukhothai we stop at a little rice factory along the road. The people here have found a good way of gaining extra income by letting tourists walk around on their property. But non the less it is a nice visit. The factory is extremely small and old. The building itself is constructed mainly of wood and - with no disrespect - looks like the factories in Belgium did some 60 years ago. There are some modern machines around, and the rice is stored in plastic bags, but apart from that...

27/07 - 15/09 - 2004 Bangkok, Ayuthaya, Sukkothai, Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai, Chiang Soen, The Golden Triangle, a bit of Laos, Phuket, Ko Samui, Ko Pang Han, Ko Tao, Rayong, Ko Samet, Bangkok. Me, Nida, Giamma, Dario, Nadia: and we met Stephane

Hey there pop-pickers.  What's shaking in your world today?  Yeah?  For real?  Cool!  Me?  I've been cycling around a World Heritage site all day!!  Yeah, you can say that again, it was 38c!!  Heh.  Well, speak again soon!  *click* Now, where was I?  Sorry about that!  I've been staying in a place called Phitsanulok since last night, and met some random German woman called Claudia staying at the same guesthouse as me.  We were ...

Sukhothai is very similar to Ayutthaya but a little more lively and without the wierd guesthouse, although this one comes with lots of big bloody rats attached, rah!! Anyway there was more cycling today and much of it away from a belgian man called max who apparently has no sense of humour. Anyway as a historical park all the ruins of sukkothai were in one place and it took just a day to see most of them, although the sun finaly came out today and made cycling in the heat and glare a lit...

Sleeping   Eating   Transport Type From To Price Dur Bus Chiang Mai Sukhothai 122/171 6 Train Chiang Mai 08:25;19:25 Phitsanulok 3rd 52 2nd 22 1st 269 5 Bus Phitsanulok Every 30 minutes Sukhotai 23B 1 VIP Bus Phitsanulok Every 30 minutes Sukhotai 32B 1 Excursions

Bangkok (Grand Palace, Wat Pho, Klongs, China Town, Calypso & Patpong), Damnoen Saduak, River Kwae, River Kwae Floatel, Ayuttaya, National Park Khao Yai & Loy Krathong, Phimai & Khon Kaen, Khao Kho, Phitsanuloke, Sukothai Historical Park, Chiang Mai (Maesa Elephant Camp, Doi Sutep,Bo Sang, Longnecks), Koh Chang, Bangkok. Full (Dutch) Travel Journal & pictures at: http://www.edsander.com/travel/thailand/