New Sukhothai Town & Market Walk
Explore New Sukhothai — the modern provincial town 12km from the historical park has its own character as an active Thai market town with the best night market food in the province and the most relaxed base for exploring the historical park.
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Sukhothai Night Market
The night market in New Sukhothai town is the most important food market accessible for visitors based in the historical park area — the market serving the town's residential community with its prepared food vendors (the pad thai stalls, the grilled meat skewers, the khao man gai, and the Sukhothai noodle soup that is the town's signature dish) and the fresh produce section provides the best expression of north-central Thai food culture available in the province. The Sukhothai noodle (kuay tiew sukhothai, the rice noodle in a mild clear pork broth with snake beans, sprouts, and peanuts that is specific to the Sukhothai area and claims to be the original form of the noodle dish) is the most important culinary heritage item of the modern town, and the night market noodle stalls are the best place to eat it.
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Sukhothai River Walk
The Yom River running through New Sukhothai provides the most pleasant urban walking environment in the town — the riverside park and the walking path along the river bank are used by the town's community for morning exercise and evening recreation, and the riverside atmosphere (with the river traffic of the longtail boats used by the agricultural community to access the riverside fields, and the fish visible in the clear river water in the dry season) provides a more genuine encounter with the town's daily life than the tourist-oriented historical park environment. The river is the same Yom River that watered the ancient Sukhothai kingdom's agricultural economy, connecting the modern town's geography directly to the historical landscape.
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Sukhothai Heritage Hotel Area
The boutique heritage hotel area developed in New Sukhothai around the renovation of old Thai townhouses provides the most comfortable accommodation base for historical park visitors who prefer town living to the resorts adjacent to the park — the renovated shophouse hotels and the garden resort hotels in the town area provide the most atmospheric accommodation accessible, with the town's food market, the river walk, and the easy access to the park by rented bicycle or the town's tuk-tuk network creating the most complete visitor experience of the Sukhothai area. The heritage hotel development demonstrates that the conservation principle applied to the archaeological site can also be applied to the modern town's architectural heritage.
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Sukhothai Noodle Restaurant
The kuay tiew sukhothai (Sukhothai noodle) restaurants of the new town are the culinary destination for food-focused visitors to the area — the dish's specific character (the rice noodle in a lighter broth than the standard northern Thai noodle soup, with the addition of fresh snake beans and the crushed peanut garnish that distinguishes it from other regional noodle variations) is specific to the Sukhothai area and is not reproduced with the same fidelity anywhere else in Thailand. The town's most celebrated noodle shops (some operating for three generations in the same location) serve the town's residents at breakfast and lunch and attract visitors from the historical park for the most authentic encounter with the area's food heritage.
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Local Market Morning
The morning market in New Sukhothai serves the town's agricultural community from 5am with the fresh produce from the Yom River valley farms — the vegetables specific to north-central Thai cooking (the various gourds, the morning glory, the long beans, and the various chilli peppers of the regional palate), the fresh fish from the Yom River (the freshwater fish species of the river system that provide the cheapest and most local protein in the market), and the prepared food vendors serving the workers' breakfast create the most authentic encounter with the provincial Thai food culture accessible from the historical park base. The market closes by 10am and is visited almost entirely by Thai residents rather than tourists.
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Loy Krathong Festival Origin
Sukhothai claims to be the origin point of the Loy Krathong festival (the full moon festival in November when Thais float decorated banana leaf boats — krathong — on rivers and ponds as offerings to the water goddess and to float away sins and bad luck) — the historical park's illuminated ruins and the simultaneous water festival create one of the most spectacular festival environments in Southeast Asia. The Sukhothai Loy Krathong festival (held over three days centred on the full moon of the 12th Thai lunar month, typically in November) transforms the historical park into a venue of thousands of lit krathong floating on the ancient ponds, candlelit processions between the temple ruins, and the traditional khon masked dance performances staged against the backdrop of the illuminated chedis.