'down time' in Thailand

After so many tours during the latter part of 2025, demanding both lots of mental energy and lots of money, I needed some 'down time' - to recharge my batteries and to pause the financial outflows.  Looking for somewhere reasonably cheap and without too many 'sights' to visit, I decided on the north of Thailand.  I had long felt that Chiang Mai and the nearby area was somewhere I ought to see, although it was never going to reach the top of my wish-list, but being close to Bangladesh, quite cheap, and this being a good time of year to come, it seemed to fill the gap nicely.

However, about equidistant between Bangkok and Chiang Mai is the UNESCO-listed ancient historical site of Sukhothai, with a collection of well over a hundred ruins of 13th and 14th century palaces and temples of the Kingdom of Siam's first capital.  & a visit there nicely broke up the journey, giving me two quite manageable seven-hour bus rides.

Whilst the majority of the ruins are within a walled area of manageable size, the entire site covers an area of some 70 km², and I was determined not to miss any of the good bits, meaning a delay to the start of my 'down time'!  Looking at the 'Fit' app on my phone, I see that I walked 26 km the day I went to see those ruins, some of it along dirt paths and up hillsides ... and I shall be forever grateful to the kind local man who saw me leave the historical park in the late afternoon and set off along the road to the new part of town where my hostel was, and insisted on giving me a lift there on the back of his motorbike, thus saving me from having to walk another 12km!

It was well worth the effort as the ruins are very impressive - and particularly nice that the parts in the Western Sector, where the hills are, was almost empty of other tourists.  So peaceful

So from there I continued north to Chiang Mai, which as a city of some 1.2 million people (Thailand's second-largest city), is certainly not peaceful!  But luckily I had made a good choice of hostel, so I could happily sit around reading my book or chatting with other guests, without feeling that I had to spend every day out seeing things.  & not spending too much money ... the £4.70 it cost me per day for my comfortable hostel includes a rather tasty breakfast buffet!





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