Sukhothai's Silver Lining

A holiday-time magnet every spring and autumn, the old capital has charms to cherish all year round


Ironically enough, we arrive at dusk in Sukhothai - long known as "the Dawn of Happiness". It's been an easy half-day's drive from Bangkok, 460 kilometres in all.

The ancient city is home to two impressive historical parks, two national parks, countless temples and museums and pretty craft villages. But the tourist brochures might be setting up first-time visitors for disappointment: The town centre is lined with old concrete shophouses rather than wondrous pagodas.

Most visitors to Sukhothai prefer to spend the night in town, where there's a range of accommodation and amenities. I remember staying at Lotus Village almost a decade ago and head there to see if one of its lovely, Thai-style teak houses with a veranda is available.

Lotus Village was almost empty on my first visit. This time it's looking its age but it's busy with foreign travellers lazing in the restaurant and lobby. The place is fully booked.

Good for them, I think. At least this quiet old town has a fully booked guesthouse to be proud of. There are still a few more places nearby to check for rooms.

The rates are in the "incredible" category. If you're spending a week or more you can easily find a place for Bt150 a night, clean enough and with an attached bathroom.

The owner of TR Guesthouse on Pravet Nakhon Road says competition is keen, with many new places appearing in the past few years - at a faster pace than the number of visitors is rising.

Sukhothai is a popular destination for Thais twice a year - for Songkran and Loy Krathong. The rest of the year it belongs to foreign visitors.

The Sukhothai Historical Park is 12 kilometres from the town centre and can be reached by local bus in 15 minutes, or you can rent a motorcycle or bicycle. Most guesthouses lease bicycles for Bt60 a day, but if you take the bus to the park, you can rent a pair of wheels for Bt20.

The park is officially open from 8.20am to 4.30pm, but those who know best get there at 6am and enjoy a sunrise stroll, and the tourist centre says there's no problem lingering around until 6pm on weekdays and until 9pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. That's when all the temples are illuminated.

The historical park is a vast collection of royal palaces, sacred temples, crumbling walls, moats, gates, dams, ditches, ponds, canals and an interesting dyke-control system. The largest temple, Wat Mahathat, has a main pagoda in the shape of a lotus bud.

Wat Traphang Thong is probably the most photographed site, sitting in the middle of a large pond where Loy Krathong is celebrated each year. The edge of the pond nearer to Wat Sasi is ideal for watching the sun set.

The Ramkhamhaeng National Museum houses gifts from a former abbot of Wat Ratchathani and art objects unearthed in Sukhothai and nearby provinces.

The local bus also takes visitors to Sri Satchanalai Historical Park, quite remote by the Yom River in Sri Satchanalai district. The site was once called Muang Chaliang, and here the ruins of 134 monuments have been unearthed.

As well as bicycles for rent, you can ride around in cars and open-sided trams.

Wat Chang Lom has a huge, bell-shaped pagoda supported by 39 elephants, with the four at the cardinal points elaborately decorated. Follow the paths up to the hilltops - both Khao Phanom Phloeng and Khao Suwan Khiri have temples at their summits.

At Baan Koh Noi, four kilometres from Sri Satchanalai, almost 500 kilns have been excavated. They're on display with the ceramics they produced long ago. Further up the riverside is Baan Pa Yang, where another 21 kilns were found.

In little Sri Satchanalai town are many textile shops, the oldest of which is calledSathon and offers an extensive collection of Had Siaw cloth and a Gold Textiles Museum.

The people of Baan Had Siaw, originally from northern Laos, are called Thai Phuan, and they've long been skilled in weaving and working with gold and silver.

Nearer to the airport in Sawankhalok district, Bangkok Airways has opened the Sukhothai Heritage hotel, which boasts an orchid farm and fields where rice is organically grown.

It's evidently another attempt to keep the tourists coming to Sukhothai, not that the charming old capital needs any help.