We left our flat in Chiang Mai early in the morning, saying goodbye to its pretty courtyard, little shrine, and resident Tokay gecko (I never heard another one for the remainder of our time in Thailand) and set off for the train station.
We hadn’t ridden a Thai train yet, so were curious to see what was in store for us.
The train station was a step up from the ones in Vietnam, where we had to walk across tracks to get to our platform, and the train itself was quite comfortable.
The air conditioning started off quite well, but a couple of hours later it seemed to go off, and then we had to be content with the interesting fans mounted every couple of feet along the ceiling.
The scenery was actually much prettier than we expected, alternating between jungle, forest and farmland, interspersed with small villages and towns.
Despite it being a nearly six hour journey, it seemed to go quickly and by early afternoon we were at Phitsanulok, where we got off and continued our journey to Sukhothai by Grab taxi.
While we waited for our car to arrive, I nipped into the train station toilet, which was by far the worst I had come across in all of SE Asia…
Not only did I have to pay 5 baht (about 15¢) for the privilege, but the toilet was a) not that clean b) had no toilet paper and c) had no flush mechanism.
Instead, there was a bucket full of water next to the toilet with a plastic scoop floating on top and a sign instructing me what to do when I was finished.
It took about an hour to get to ‘New’ Sukothai where we were staying in a guesthouse near the Yom River, which flows through the town.
It was a slightly run-down but pleasant enough place in a forest-like setting with a pretty pool and a large and comfortable room.
As we had had a long day of travel, we decided to stay in that evening, but had already booked a rental car that we planned to pick up at the airport the next morning.
Imagine our surprise as we were getting ready to book a taxi to take us to the airport when we got a call from the small independent rental company letting us know they would bring the car to our hotel free of charge!
When they arrived, there was one page of paperwork, a quick glance at our passports and British driving licenses, and we were handed the keys—easiest car rental in the history of mankind!
Granted, the car had almost 250,000 km on it, but it ran well and was comfortable, so no complaints from us.
The reason for coming to Sukhothai in the first place is that about 8 miles east of where we were staying, in the town know as ‘Old Sukhothai’, is the Angkor Wat of Thailand, where there are extensive remains of the 13th century temple complex that was the capital of the Thai empire for about 150 years.
The most important structures are within an area bounded by old walls and a moat that requires an entry fee and allows no vehicles except bicycles and electric golf carts, but spread across the entire old town area are the remains of more than 200 temples.
So as not to repeat our mistake in Angkor Wat and arrive unprepared for what we would see, we decided to go to the museum in old Sukhothai before visiting any of the temples, and we were glad we did.
Not only did we learn a bit about the Kingdom of Siam that founded Sukhothai in 1238, we also discovered that it was artistically innovative—specifically, in the depiction of Buddha in a graceful walking pose with a flowing robe that reminded us so much of the statues of medieval angels we had seen carved on the Romanesque churches of France last spring.
Throughout our travels we had seen many sitting, standing and reclining Buddhas, but never a walking one–a pose which is completely unique to Sukhothai.
While the traditional poses are static, stylized and convey a sense of remoteness, the walking Buddha expresses dynamic movement and humanity.
After we saw several 14th century examples in the museum, we were immediately enthralled, and hoped to see one in situ at some point.
The museum also had a nice collection of statuary from the Sukhothai kingdom period, including a group of small, primitive sculptures depicting mothers and babies that I found very charming.
Outside were some interesting elephant sculptures as well as an example of a kind of kiln, Sukhothai having been a major ceramics center in the 14th century.
As we had gotten a bit of a late start and were now approaching the hotter part of the day, we decided not to tour the Sukhothai Historic Park that afternoon, but drive about an hour north to Si Satchanalai Historical Park, the second center of the Kingdom of Siam, founded in 1250, and also containing extensive ruins.
There was absolutely no one there when we arrived (not too much of a surprise as it was already 41C/106F by this time) and our only options for touring the ruins were on foot or by trolley, which cost all of 60 baht per person (about $1.60/£1.30 each).
We had a trolley to ourselves, driven by a truly ancient Thai man who spoke not a word and silently drove us around at a such a glacial pace that he generated no cooling breeze in the open carriage.
We continued this way for about an hour, stopping three times to get out and examine some of the temples, many of which had the remnants of lion and elephant sculptures at their bases.
While it was once again wildly hot, it was also fantastic having the entire park to ourselves—so peaceful, timeless and almost otherworldly.
Nevertheless, an hour was plenty in those temperatures, and when we had been deposited back at the carpark we scurried to a nearby stand and bought and quickly consumed frozen fruit smoothies, our go-to beverage of choice (after water) in Asia.
We continued to drive around the area, spotting many more temples that were outside the park boundary, many of them as impressive and beautiful as the ones we had seen on the trolley.
At one temple, I pointed out the many wild mango trees surrounding us, and Tom, who hadn’t realized that’s what they were, jumped out of the car and pulled a couple of unripe ones off the nearest tree, relishing the novelty of just picking mangos by the roadside.
That evening, we decided to visit the market we’d heard was held inside the Sukhothai Historic Park each weekend, and it was magical.
One avenue, surrounded by illuminated bell-shaped chedi, was strung with lights and lined with little food stalls.
It was busy by not crowded, with a very quiet and relaxed atmosphere unlike that of any other market we’d visited in Asia.
We bought food at several stalls and ate perched on an unused table while marvelling at the setting, next to a lake and surrounded by ancient ruins.
Before we left, we bought ice cream from a sweet older couple that was really delicious!
Things wrapped up pretty early there, so when we got back to New Sukhothai, we decided to venture over to the city’s once-weekly ‘walking street’, which was near our hotel. It was much busier and noisier than the temple market—much like every street market we had seen in our travels.
Here, however, for the first time we saw trays of roasted insects for sale. What had been on the empty tray is anybody’s guess—the most tasty insect??
We bought some bananas and guava, but mostly just strolled around taking in the atmosphere.
When we got back to the hotel and tried one of the bananas, however, we found that they were full of rather large, hard black seeds—they were wild bananas, which, unlike the supermarket varieties that are bred to be seedless and sterile, contain 5-10 large seeds each.
The fruit is tasty, but the presence of the seeds makes them pretty much inedible—though it did help us understand why the jungles of Thailand are filled with wild bananas: when overripe ones drop to the ground they must propagate quite easily.
Our tour of Si Satchanalai convinced us we need to see Sukhothai itself, so we got an early start and hired a golf cart driver to take us around for an hour.
He at least drove fast enough to create a bit of a breeze, but charged two and a half times as much as the trolley had cost the previous day ☹.
These temples, especially the centrepiece, Wat Mahathat, were outstandingly beautiful, but also much more crowded with tourists.
Around the base of the main structure was a running frieze of Buddhas (or disciples) in the Walking Buddha pose, all slightly different but with gently flexed legs and gracefully flowing robes that entranced me.
The oldest temple in the complex, Wat Si Sawai, was a Hindu temple built in the late 12th century and was a holdover from the time before Thailand embraced Buddhism, predating the establishment of Sukhothai as the capital of a new kingdom.
At one of the last stops, the beautiful temple Wat Sa Si, located on an island in one of the lakes of the complex, we finally found the Walking Buddha we had been seeking, and he was every bit as lovely as we expected.
There was one other example, at one of the subordinate temples of Wat Mahathat, but it was bas relief-emerging from a brick backing, while the one at Wat Sa Si was free-standing.
We were quite taken with the image and I was determined to find a small version to take home with me.
The whole setting and the temple ruins were very beautiful and we were very glad we had decided to tour around the complex.
Our golf cart driver took us back to the entrance exactly one hour after we had started and as it was only 10am, we had to figure out what to do with the rest of the day.
We still had the car, so we decided to drive about an hour south and visit the third and final site from the same time period: Kamphaeng Phet Historical Park, a 14th century outpost of the Sukhothai kingdom. All three parks make up the UNESCO World Heritage Site Historic Town of Sukhothai and Associated Historic Towns.
Kamphaeng Phet is divided into two sections: the main site, with numerous temples where you are allowed to take your car and drive around and a secondary site in the middle of the city in which you have to walk around to see the main temple ruins.
Unbelievably, this turned out to be the hottest day we had yet encountered- 43C/109F (‘feels like’ 48C/118F) so we were incredibly grateful we could drive around in our air conditioned car rather than in an open trolley or golf cart.
Still, every time we got out to walk around it was like stepping into an oven.
We were especially taken with Wat Chang Rop, with its base of elephants, which while in a state of decay, was the most intact of such temples we had yet seen.
The other temple we spent some time exploring was Wat Phra Si Iriyabot, which had a large mandapa, or principle chedi whose four sides once held images of Buddha in four poses: standing, sitting, walking and reclining.
Only the standing Buddha remains, but the traces of the walking Buddha could still be made out.
We drove to the city site because I was determined to see the reclining Buddha there.
Tom was not as keen and hung back, while I charged on, becoming aware that it was a lot farther than I had imagined, and that stupidly, I had failed to take one of the bottles of water Tom was carrying.
I made it by staying in the shade as much as possible, snapped a few (not very good) photos and began walking back, my legs heavy and heart pounding.
About half-way back, I saw Tom, silently holding out a bottle of water—saving me from myself yet again.
As we made our way back to Sukhothai we realized we hadn’t eaten anything all day—not even our regulation smoothies–and decided we would try to find a place that served Sukhothai’s signature noodle dish.
Inexplicably, and much to our surprise, every noodle joint I found closed at 4pm, and we were not on track to get back to the city until about 3:30.
Finally I found one on Google that stayed open until 5pm- the reviews raved about the noodles and mentioned its out of the way location, but failed to mention that this ‘restaurant’ was actually the open-air garage of a house on the back streets of old Sukhothai!
Slightly dubious, we decided to trust the older lady who single handedly ran the little eatery and sat down at one of the tables (we were the only patrons).
We were surrounded by motor scooters and assorted tools, wood scraps and bags of rice, with baby chickens running about and we ordered one of the four things on offer—the Sukhothai noodles.
The woman decamped to the ‘kitchen’ area and proceeded to chop and stir and in a few minutes appeared with our bowls of steaming broth, pork, green beans and rice noodles.
It was delicious.
When it came time to pay, the two meals plus two bottle of water came to 100 baht- about $2.75/£2.10. We’d had some very inexpensive meals in Vietnam, but this definitely was the cheapest dinner we had the entire trip.
We had only one more stop to make – a temple outside the old city walls in Sukhothai famous for its elephant statues, Wat Chang Lom.
Many of the elephants have been restored, but after seeing so many similar temples in advanced states of decay and having had to just imagine what they might have looked like when they were created, it was delightful to see intact elephants for once.
Our final task before leaving Sukhothai was to try to find a small Walking Buddha statue to take home with us. We wandered the streets of the old town but were astonished to discover that there were virtually NO tourist shops at all!
Everywhere we have been has been awash in shops selling all sorts of tourist tat, from the sublime to the tacky, but the one time we really wanted a souvenir, there was none to be found.
I did find one shop selling ceramics that looked hopeful, so we went to take a look.
The shop was huge and had a vast array of not only ceramic, but wooden and bronze Buddhas of all shapes and sizes. We found a couple of Walking Buddhas that were way too large to carry home, and were about to leave when we spotted a bronze one in a display case that was just about the right size.
We asked how much and the proprietress wrote down what looked like 1500B, which we took to mean 1500 baht. We haggled a bit and got it down to 1350, which we were prepared to pay, so she eagerly wrapped the Buddha up and put it into a nice carrier bag along with a couple of small freebies.
We handed over 1350 baht and she began to freak out. “No, no, no”, she said, whipping out her paper again and writing clearly 13,500.
Well, we had been prepared to pay $40 for the statue—but not $400 (even though that was only the price of a banana 😉🍌).
We handed the bag back to her and promptly walked out of the shop.
I was pretty sure she had profiled us as rich westerners- driving a nice car and me with my pearls (though we were not fancily dressed by any means) and decided to charge what by Thai standards was an outrageously high price. Maybe it was an antique, but without any provenance, how could we be sure?
So, disappointingly, we left Sukhothai without a Walking Buddha, which I was quite sad about. But, we had one more chance to find one in our next and final destination: Bangkok.
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