We are staying in New Sukhothai which is about 12km (8 miles) from the old city of Sukhothai.

Sukhothai was the capital of the Sukhothai Kingdom, one of the early kingdoms of Thailand and covered most of modern Thailand and Laos, from the Vietnamese border and well down the Malay peninsula. The kingdom survived for about 200 years, meaning Sukhothai was an important city for long enough to build some impressive buildings and be influenced by previous cultures as well as the many kingdoms across Southeast Asia. Like most old cities in Southeast Asia only the temples were built from stone, everything else was built from wood and has long since disappeared.

The owner of the guesthouse we are staying in offered to take us to the old city, he drove us right up to the ticket office. Very nice of him! We rented a bike (30 baht each) and bought the tickets to get into the central section of the city (110 baht each) and off we cycled. Not bad, £2.60 each to see this huge site.

We had decided not to buy the audio guide and started to regret that decision almost immediately after entering the park. Luckily, at the first temple we reached the sign had a QR Code which I scanned and it took me to a website, which also advertised an Android App for Sukhothai. I downloaded the app and it had a map of the site, then information about each ruin and some audio information. It probably wasn’t as informative as the audio guide but for free it good enough.

We wandered around the first three temples then started feeling hungry. In most places we’ve visited we have found that food stalls exist everywhere. Wherever there are people you will find at least one stall selling food and one selling drinks. In the historical park we found a row of about 30, selling all manner of foods. Annemarie had an omelette and I had red curry, about £1.10 in total.

We looked at another three temples after lunch then decided to leave the central section and go to the north section. Just outside the central section is a huge orchid market, filled with orchids in an array of colours.

A short cycle from the orchid market we found another couple of temple ruins. By now, in the heat of the afternoon and with full stomachs we suddenly felt sleepy. A nice shaded spot under a tree provided the perfect location for an afternoon nap (luckily no ants came to nibble). After a 30 minute rest we wandered again, but far slower now, around a couple more temples.

It was now 3pm and we were ‘templed out’ and tired. I guess the heat was getting to us as this wasn’t normal. We decided to leave and go back to the hotel to shower and rest before going out to eat. The bus back was 30 baht (56p) each.

Posted from Mueang Kao, Sukhothai, Thailand.