The ruins of Sukhothai & Ayutthaya
The ancient capitals of Sukhothai and Ayutthaya were always high on our agenda for Thailand. We’re complete suckers for old temples and after our wonderful few days at Angkor, we were just as keen to start exploring again.
We had a long day’s journey from Chiang Rai to get to the strangely named Space Ben guesthouse, a tiny place in the old area of Sukhothai next to the temple complex. Our host was a lovely and rather eccentric middle-aged Thai lady who couldn’t do enough for us and insisted that our room, opening out pretty much straight onto a quiet road as it did, was the best in the entire place. Out of two. We dumped the bags as it was right at golden hour and legged it out to the biggest and best temple around, Wat Mahathat, spending a lovely couple of hours wallowing in the ever deepening reds of the sunset.
Temple exploration here is best done on two wheels however, so the next day we hired a couple of bicycles from the guesthouse owner (“30 Baht, 30 Baht”, she said, like a parrot, everytime the word bicycle was mentioned) and slowly meandered around the complex.
Old Sukhothai holds the ruins and remains of the short-lived 14th century Sukhothai kingdom, the first kingdom of Siam before its destruction by rampaging Burmese hordes and replacement by Ayutthaya, and is now, in effect, an expansive archaeological park. The grounds in the main central area are meticulously kept so the atmosphere is a little less thrilling than at Angkor. Equally the temples themselves are not quite, on the whole, as charismatic or intriguing, however what it lacks in jungle excitement, it makes up for in ease of access and, surprisingly, fewer visitors.
The best of the place, in our opinion, is to be found at Wat Si Chum, where a tastefully restored and quite enormous buddha statue sits enclosed in a roofless square temple. The approach to the site is quite breathtaking. The front temple wall has a vertical cut-out so the giant face of the incumbent can be clearly seen as you walk towards it. However, it’s only when you get inside that you appreciate how large the statue is. One of its hands, slightly golden from the application of gold leaf sheets, now faded, was substantially bigger than us.
Another notable feature of the experience at Sukhothai is the way in which different nationalities like to visit. The vast majority of the western tourists there had hired bikes and were happily pedalling around in the hot sunshine, on their own and taking their time over the sights. The vast majority of Asian tourists were driven around in golf carts. Most carts stopped at the temples in case anyone wanted to get out and actually visit the sights themselves. Hardly anyone did. Most seemed content to sit there and see the outsides from afar. A strange and marked contrast in styles no doubt. We asked our host why this was the case. “Peasants”, she barked. “People ride bicycles peasants”. We slunk off to our makeshift shelter and cooked up some meagre gruel to commiserate….
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Sa Si, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Maechon, Sukhothai
Wat Mahathat, Sukhothai
Wat Chana Songkhram, Sukhothai
Wat Sorasak, Sukhothai
Wat Sorasak, Sukhothai
Wat Maechon, Sukhothai
Wat Maechon, Sukhothai
Wat Traphang Ngoen, Sukhothai
Wat Si Chum, Sukhothai
Wat Si Chum, Sukhothai
Wat Si Chum, Sukhothai
Wat Si Sawai, Sukhothai
Wat Si Sawai, Sukhothai
Wat Si Sa, Sukhothai
Wat Si Sa, Sukhothai
Wat Si Sa, Sukhothai
Wat Si Sa, Sukhothai
Wat Si Sa, Sukhothai
Wat Traphang Ngoen, Sukhothai
Another fairly long day (6 hours on a bus with a high-pitched screaming German child) brought us to the city of Ayutthaya, the 14th century second kingdom of Siam, whose major sights are also in ruins after yet another sacking by the pesky Burmese. As at Sukhothai, we hit the sights as soon as we’d arrived as the light was getting rather fabulous, and again to a temple called Wat Mahathat. This is probably the most famous temple here, largely due to the much photographed dismembered buddha head that purportedly found its way into the clutches of a strangler fig tree and is now embedded and slowly being entombed. To us, as cynics, it looked like it had been placed there purposely for the tree to grow around, but it makes a hell of a good photo nonetheless.
Touring Ayutthaya was less alluring to be honest as the sights are spread a fair distance apart and either need taxi rides between them or an expensive tour (guess what we plumped for). You can ride bikes here too, and we did, but this is a busy city and the experience was a lot less edifying as a result. Equally, though the temples here are more impressive than at Sukhothai, they attract many more visitors due to their proximity to Bangkok. Despite this we found ourselves enjoying the place almost as much.
For our last night there, we took a taxi out to Wat Chiawatthanaram, a temple situated on the Chao Phraya River and known for its wonderful sunset views. There was a festival of sorts going on and many Thai visitors were dressed to the nines in traditional finery and enjoying having their photos taken (how many times have we seen this kind of thing on this trip?). Food stalls galore of course, but also an open-air massage parlour where several willing victims were laid on raised beds and being attacked with what appeared to be wooden chisels. Masseurs, armed with said instruments, were merrily hammering away with little mallets, moving the chisels down peoples backs and necks and hammering away at buttocks and thighs. As we were watching, they all stopped, stood up and turned around to watch a nearby screen showing a portrait of the late Thai queen and silently listened to the national anthem. The pummelled remained prone, no doubt relieved by the interlude. Anthem over, all returned wordlessly to their work of carving out a new and perhaps slightly smaller version of the human being under their hammer….
An excellent few days if truth be told. On to the Second World War sites at Kanchanaburi next, then out to the little visited ‘hidden gem’ town of Sangkhlaburi…
Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya
Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya
Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya
Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya
Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Wat Phra Ram, Ayutthaya
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Wat Ratchaburana, Ayutthaya
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya
Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya
Wat Yai Chai Mongkol, Ayutthaya
Wat Phra Ram, Ayutthaya
Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya
Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya
Wat Chaiwatthanaram, Ayutthaya
Foodnote: The perils of revisiting your new favourite restaurant. We’d stumbled across a place in Ayutthaya that specialised in Italian / Thai fusion cuisine, and it looked and sounded interesting. A very welcoming owner, a guy sat outside playing great Thai songs on his guitar and a mobile kitchen in a van where the dishes were prepared. We had the most wonderful pasta, with a kick of spice that just somehow really worked and some lovely wine. Bags of atmosphere and we felt warm and welcome. Normally we tend to try different places as a matter of course, but for once we thought we’d repeat the wonderful experience of the previous night. This time bland pasta, distinctly average pizza, disinterested owner and, worst of all, the live guitar player replaced by an excruciatingly awful AI generated soundtrack. The latter is a real feature of dining out in Thailand it seems – shitty lounge music sung by the same patronising female voice and based on a seemingly random collection of cliches strung together to form songs that make absolutely no sense at all. You can tell we’re not big fans……
Simon (26th January 2026)
Great stories again fabulous photos. XX
Cheers
Looks stunning!!
Shame about the restaurant , are you sure it was the same place 🤔
Good pont… Not sure we’ve lost it to that extent, but you never know….
Once again fabulous photos & brilliant narrative wrapped around them.
Wonder if it was top chefs night off on your return?
Take care & keep on cycling x x