Sukhothai, Central Thailand

Sukhothai is split into two sections: New Sukhothai with the city centre and Old Sukhothai 12 km west. After reading how unappealing, dirty and busy the town was, I decided to find us accommodation close to the ruins of Old Sukhothai at a place called Legendha.

Legendha was situated on the highway which meant our bus dropped us off directly in front of the hotel. Bonus! At first we were a bit surprised to find a large gravel parking lot and an open air restaurant without a reception area but an employee ran out to meet us, gathered our bags onto a trolley and showed us across a wooden bridge over a small canal to the resort proper.

We were checked in quickly with welcome drinks and cold scented cloths and then shown our room directly beside a large clean pool that we couldn’t wait to get into it. Our room was spacious with lots of windows and wooden floors but the bathroom was tired looking. Tiles around the tub were missing and the shower head sprayed water everywhere and the beds moved when you got into them, but it was one of the nicer hotels in the area. The grounds were nice and the pool was absolutely refreshing and this turned out to be a welcome relief from the heat of Central Thailand.

The resort is more suited for tour groups and these were frequent at Legendha. They were early risers, those groups, but then so were we. Groups were out the entire day so we still had the pool to ourselves in the afternoons. The resort rented bicycles so Ian and I took advantage of those and headed into town early to see the ruins.

Sukhothai is typically regarded as the first capital of Siam and was previously the site of a Khmer empire until 1238. The remains of the kingdom feature around 45 sq km of partially rebuilt ruins in a peaceful natural setting. Wat Mahathat completed in the 13^th C is the largest wat in Sukhothai. A brick wall and moat surround a complex that features 198 chedhi and various Buddha figures.

Ian and I always find it amazing how despite visiting several ruins and temples, we always see different things. In Old Sukhothai it was the very large and very different Buddha figures.

We were lucky as there were not a lot of people around. Ian actually called his mom back in Canada and they chatted as we strolled through the complex.

We got back on our bikes and followed the path around to the south of Wat Mahathat to Wat Si Sawai dated from the 12^th and 13^th centuries. This wat features three Khmer style towers.

To the side stands a lovely tree with various Buddha figures entwined in its roots.

We rode our bikes slowly around the almost deserted park to visit a few more simple Wats and this ancient Chedhi with a lovely Buddha figure in front of it.

It was time for a smoothie and a coffee as the heat of the day was overwhelming. After re-energizing, we headed outside the city walls to see the ruins there. As soon as we began riding down the long hot road, I wished we had rented scooters! The sun pounded down on our heads as the road was without shade. We passed a few ruins that looked like nothing more than piles of bricks.

There were a few paths one had to climb and Ian went up one of them. This one we merely admired from the road.

Our journey led us back to the highway, however, nothing looked familiar and we had no idea which direction would lead us back to town. After some debate, we headed left but luckily a fellow at the side of the road grabbed out attention and indicated we should go right. He turned out to be absolutely correct.

Lunch was at a small open air restaurant and the afternoon was spent at the pool. We decided to try the hotel buffet for dinner and caught some of the Thai dance performance held there each night. Can’t say I was overly impressive with either the food or the performance. Our night was fairly quiet and we were up again early to miss the heat.

This time we were renting scooters from Vitoon Guesthouse, where we also dropped off some laundry.  I think the scooters were about 10 dollars each and once the paperwork was completed we set off to Si Satchanalai – Chaliang Historical Park just outside of Old Sukhothai. The park covers 720 hectares and the setting is lovely, quiet and peaceful with its wide open spaces and giant trees. I don’t think we ever had to share a site with another tourist. It was splendid.

The first ruin we came to was Wat Chang Lom, a bell shaped chedhi surrounded by elephants that had clearly been restored.

We moved on to a few more temples with seated Buddha images. I wish I knew the name of this particular temple ruin as it was truly magnificent. As we approached from the road, we could make out a very large Buddha peeking through the opening of the ruins. It wasn’t until we stepped through the opening that we could appreciate its size….there’s me at its feet.

We really felt very lucky to be there.

At this point, it was time for a bathroom break so we followed the map that led us to an active temple complex and the public restrooms. While I was occupied, Ian wandered around and discovered a shrine that housed a Buddha image inside. As we stood admiring the unique structure, a monk wandered over and motioned for us to follow him inside. We had to step sideways to get through the narrow door that led us to its inner sanctum.

We knelt at the feet of the Buddha image and the monk handed us incense which we offered to Buddha. He then placed an orange bracelet on Ian’s wrist, handing mine over to Ian as monks are not permitted to touch women.

We said our goodbyes and thanks and headed back out on the scooters feeling lucky having been blessed by a monk. The road was almost deserted and it was great flying on our scooters through the park-like setting. Our next stop was a large area of ruins where we could just make out bass reliefs of Buddha.  

There were also several Khmer towers, disintegrated elephant statues and piles of bricks.

At some point we decided to check out New Sukhothai so we off we went, passing our hotel and heading out on the highway with the rest of the traffic. The city was not my cup of tea: dirty, congested, tiny open air stores crammed along the streets…we quickly turned around and headed back to a small department store we had passed earlier. Here we had a coffee and purchased a few sundries and then headed back to our hotel and the pool.

We had a splendid time alone in our large pool. At one point a small moth landed on Ian’s head and would not leave. Ian would go under water, the moth would flit around, and as soon as Ian resurfaced, it would plant itself back on his head.

It tried my head for a few minutes but definitely preferred Ian’s. It was probably there for a good 15, if not 20, minutes.

After our lazy afternoon, we went for another ride before returning the bikes, picked up our laundry and headed back to the hotel for dinner – the manager was treating us to a complimentary meal. Sweet!  

The next day we headed to Ayutthaya, just north of Bangkok. We had wanted to visit in October when we were in Bangkok but it was completely flooded at that time. It would be interesting to see how it had recouped since the flood. The bus ride would take about 5 hours, so we packed up our bags and settled in for another long bus ride.