Sukhothai

Older and quieter than Ayutthaya, Sukhothai (the “dawn of happiness”) was the first Thai capital and is the country’s other UNESCO ruin park. The site sits about midway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai — a useful overnight stop on the slow train north. Rent a bicycle for the day: the central zone is a flat, shaded landscape of lotus-bud chedis, lily ponds, and weathered seated Buddha rows that photographs especially well at sunrise and just after a monsoon shower. Wat Si Chum, with its colossal stucco Buddha glimpsed through a narrow opening in the mondop walls, is the unmissable single shot.

Wat Mahathat in Sukhothai at sunrise, an ancient lotus-bud chedi and rows of seated Buddha statues across a tranquil lily pond in soft pink dawn light with mist rising from the water
Wat Mahathat at sunrise.
Wat Si Chum giant seated Buddha in Sukhothai, the colossal stucco Buddha glimpsed through a tall narrow opening in a square mondop with weathered walls and a dramatic shaft of daylight
Wat Si Chum’s giant seated Buddha.

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