Sukhothai - Part 1

Yesterday I returned from a three day trip to Sukhothai. Sukhothai was the home of the first Thai kingdom and was the seat of Thai power during the 13th and 14th centuries. Located between Bangkok to the south and Chiang Mai to the north, Sukhothai attracts tourists to visit the ruins of this early Thai kingdom. The reason that I visited Sukhothai was to photograph some of those ruins.

It is very clear as you land at the Sukhothai airport that you are in a place much different than Bangkok. The airports themselves stand in stark contrast. Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport is a crowded and hectic modern airport. When there are no protestors interfering with its operation, Suvarnabhumi has flights to all parts of the globe. Its shops offer luxury goods from all parts of the planet. It’s the kind of airport that one would find in a major city throughout the world.

Sukhothai Airport is much more humble than its larger sibling in Bangkok. It offers only a handful of flights each day, and all of those are to Bangkok and operated by Bangkok Airways. Cows graze and chickens peck just a stone’s throw from Sukhothai’s one runway. After disembarking, passengers board a small tram and are driven two minutes to a “terminal” unlike any this author has ever seen. The terminal is a large wooden open air structure with twenty foot ceilings. The terminal feels more like a luxury resort lobby than an airport terminal. The typical airport rows of metal and plastic seating are not found, instead waiting passengers sit on ornate wooden benches. There are no long walks to a gate. The distance from the airport entrance to where you board the tram is no more than twenty meters.








Another difference in airports is that there is not a line of taxis waiting to zip you to your hotel. In addition to the vans from the various hotels, Bangkok Airways operates a shuttle that will take you to a number of destinations. I spoke with the agent and told her my hotel. She asked me twice if I had already made the reservation. After I confirmed that I had a reservation for the Sukhothai Resort, she showed me its location on the map. The hotel was actually close to the airport, and about thirty minutes away from new Sukhothai and almost an hour from the ancient ruins. I was not really very happy to hear this, so I asked her for some suggestions. She named a few, and I decided to try the Sukhothai Orchid, located in new Sukhothai. Even though I would be charged for a night’s stay at my original booking, it was much more convenient and actually cheaper to change. The cost of transportation to and from my destinations would quickly overcome the eighteen dollar penalty.

The shuttle ride to new Sukhothai was about six dollars (180 baht). My room in the Sukhothai Orchid cost about eighteen dollars a night, including breakfast. The room was clean but spartan. It did have air conditioning, although the bed was hardly soft and there were only two electric outlets in the room; the one for the television and the one for the mini-refrigerator. I ended up unplugging both at different times to charge things like my iTouch, portable DVD player and camera battery.

I’ll write about the rest of my first day in the next entry.