A journey to old Siam in Sukhothai

I didn’t think long about my X-Mas holiday destination: Every trip to Thailand feels like coming home and although it has been my seventh (!) time (I had to count….), there are still lots of places I want to explore. Sukhothai always has been one of them, but I never made it there. After a day of adjusting in Bangkok, we started our journey early in the morning. Our butts hurt badly after a seven-hour ride in a third class train but at least train travel never gets boring in Thailand and there’s plenty of food and drinks.

The historical park in Sukhothai is a UNESCO heritage site and has been the capital of the Siamese kingdom in the 13th century before it moved to Ayutthaya and Bangkok. Despite its rather short glory days, the temples and chedis are of impressive size and architectural beauty with Khmer and Sri Lankan influences. Especially the Buddha inside Wat Si Chum gives a pretty photo subject. Bicycles are the most popular mode of transport for exploring the spacious park, but the weather god meant it very well and it became brutally hot that day – no single cloud would cover the unforgiving sun. I’m glad we took the lazy way by tuk-tuk and still I was knackered after that tour (also because we ate bad food and had stomach issues). Sukhothai is a paradise for temple and history lovers (and I’m sure you can geek out on that) but there’s not much else to do (which I don’t mind) – for being such an important historic place, the town has remained very small and quiet.