Sukhothai Travel Guide

Sukhothai was the capital of the first independent Thai kingdom from the middle of the thirteenth century, and it is where a great deal of what is now taken to be Thai began: the script, the classic walking Buddha with its impossible smoothness, the temple architecture that Ayutthaya inherited and elaborated.

It fell into the orbit of Ayutthaya within two centuries and was abandoned. Restoration in the twentieth century turned it into a park, and it became a UNESCO World Heritage site alongside Ayutthaya in 1991.

How it differs from Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya is a working town with ruins in it. Sukhothai is a park with a town seven hundred metres away, and the difference is enormous: no traffic, no wires, no shophouses at the edge of the frame. Lawns, moats, lotus ponds and brick, and you can hear birds.

It is also much quieter, and for one reason: Ayutthaya is ninety minutes from Bangkok and Sukhothai is six hours. Almost nobody comes for the day, so the people here have chosen to be.

The park

Three zones, and the central one holds most of what you came for. Wat Mahathat is the largest complex, a forest of columns around a lotus-bud chedi with a seated Buddha at its centre. Wat Si Chum, in the north zone, is one very tall seated Buddha in a roofless brick box, visible through a slot in the wall, and it is the most startling thing in Sukhothai.

Wat Sa Si sits on an island in a pond and is the one to be at when the light drops. Wat Si Sawai has three Khmer prangs and predates the Thai kingdom entirely.

Hire a bicycle at the gate. The central zone is flat, shaded in places, and made for one.

Si Satchanalai

An hour north, a second walled city of the same kingdom, larger in area and with a fraction of the visitors. If Sukhothai worked for you, this is the follow-up, and on a weekday you may share it with nobody.

New town and old town

Sukhothai has two halves twelve kilometres apart. The new town has the bus station, the cheap rooms and the night market; the old town is the park and a handful of guesthouses at its edge. Staying in the old town costs a little more and saves the commute, and it means being there at opening and at closing when the light is worth it.

Getting there

Sukhothai has a small airport with flights from Bangkok, run by Bangkok Airways, and it is the quick way. Otherwise it is six or seven hours by bus from Bangkok, five from Chiang Mai. It sits naturally between the two, which is the best reason to build it into an itinerary rather than to make a trip of it.

When to go

November to February. Loy Krathong is held in the park itself and Sukhothai claims to be where the festival began; it is the one night of the year the place is crowded, and it books out months ahead.