Angkor Wat its not, but still pretty cool

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Sukhothai was the capital of an ancient Thai kingdom, dating from the 1200's and started to claim back some land from the previously dominant Angkor kingdoms.  We stopped off here as a convient and interesting halfway stop over in the journey from Chiang Mai - an easy 5 hour bus journey.

The ruins are in a well tended park complex a short local bus journey from the "new" city.  The park was lovely with shady trees (very important as it was very hot), many picturesque lakes and moats around the ruins and carefully manicured shrubbery.  It was very peaceful, with not many tourists around.  The ruins themselves were made with brick and plaster, and so were not in as good condition as the Cambodian ruins which were largely stone.  However there were many more intact Buddha images as Thailand hasn't been subject to the reckage of historical sites that Cambodia has.  We just looked around the central area, hiring bikes, as it was too hot to think about heading out any further than that!