The Thai City I Never Thought to Visit

The train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai takes about 13-14hrs. Ainsley and I wanted to see Chiang Mai, but flying in and out of Bangkok was the cheapest, which meant Chiang Mai had to be a roundtrip journey. So, we decided to book a sleeper train on the way back to Bangkok but split our journey north up by making stops along the way. One of those stops, I found by opening Google Maps and zooming in about halfway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. It was a city named Phitsanulok. I found a hostel there that had stellar reviews, so we decided to send it. 

All I knew about the city was what I gleaned from the reviews of the hostel. The two most important bits of information I got were that Mark, the owner of the hostel, was great at giving advice on what to do in the city and that Phitsanulok is a place that has far fewer tourists than places like Bangkok and Phuket. Armed with that knowledge, we hopped off our train and set off on the 11-minute walk to our hostel. On the way, I immediately felt the expected yet welcome change in vibe from Bangkok—far more chill and manageable. 

We lugged our bags through the body-temperature air (which doesn’t sound like a lot until you think about it), yearning for the next awning every time we felt the merciless photons that were causing the UV index to be 11. Before this trip, I knew nothing about the UV index, but now, I know that 11 is a lot. Aside from the heat, which was unavoidable in Thailand, the walk reinforced my expectation of falling in love with Phitsanulok in the coming days.

On the walk, I decided to switch to Apple Maps from Google Maps because I thought it would be convenient for the directions to show up on my watch. To my delight, it worked, and I didn’t have to take my phone out every time I needed to check directions. Relishing in the slight reduction of inconvenience, I cheerfully followed my watch and promptly arrived at the wrong location. So then I switched back to Google Maps, perfectly fine with taking my phone out of my pocket every now and then since it led me to the right place.

We were greeted by Mark and were checked into the hostel with a comprehensive list of what we could do in the area as promised by the reviews. After settling into our room, which consisted in dropping our bags next to our beds and sighing in relief, we braved the heat once more, this time in search of calories. After some good, cheap food from a small mall’s food court, we decided to check out a place we had seen on our walk from the train station. It was a bookstore with a coffee shop. The place was air-conditioned but not overly so like many places are when it’s boiling out. It had really good cheap tea and coffee. The shelves of books and plants gave the place an impeccable ambiance. I mention this because it ended up being a place we went back to every day and added much to our trip. While we are currently experiencing six months of Saturdays, there are still non-tourist things that we have to do. This was the perfect place to catch up on blogging, sort through our pictures, do taxes, and book plane tickets. This bookstore epitomized our time in Phitsanlulok. It was lovely and chill, a new place to explore, but gave us the chance to slow down and get things in order before moving on to later phases of the trip. 

The Markets

Phitsanulok had my favorite day and night markets in Thailand. They weren’t tourist-oriented, so the prices were much cheaper than anywhere in Bangkok. One of the wats near our hostel was apparently celebrating its 666th birthday, so there was a huge market that we went to every day. I had endless fun looking through the <$2 t-shirts that said anything from “Wilson Family Cruise 2017” to “More Cowbell Less Cancer.” I bought a nice Queen shirt for about a dollar, it was great. There was also some incredibly good food. The two highlights were a serving of delicious Pad Thai wrapped in a banana leaf for $0.28 and pork satays that had the most delicious, melt-in-your-mouth fat I’ve perhaps ever had. There were several other markets that we went to as well. Each of them had its own character, but none were plagued by the overpriced, hyper-tourist-orientedness of many of the markets in Bangkok. 

The Hostel

The hostel we stayed in, the Karma Home Hostel, was absolutely lovely. Mark, the owner, was super nice and was always happy to suggest things to do and help you arrange them if you needed. One night, he told everyone about the Phitsanulok FC game going on, and a bunch of us from the hostel went. After being delayed by a 30-minute beer-finding expedition, we took our seats to see 0-2 on the scoreboard. Phitsanulok FC did not have the strongest start. Drums beating in my chest, the crowd roaring in my ears, and Chang beer flowing in one of my intestines, I watched as Phitsanulok began to mount a come back. After a thrilling hour, the Phitsanulok came out on top 3-2. We could not have asked for a better game. Third-tier Thai professional football truly delivered on its promised excitement.

Staying in the Karma Home Hostel was a great time. In addition to the game, we also went out, played pool, tried some of Mark’s home-brewed liquor, and met a bunch of great people. You really can’t ask for much more out of a hostel.

My thoughts on Phitsanulok

There is much to do around Phitsanulok if you are willing to bus, scooter, or hitchhike a couple of hours away, but we never made it out of the city. I wouldn’t necessarily recommend staying in the city the whole time if you’re in Phitsanulok, but even without leaving it, spending four nights there was lovely. I felt that I got to know the place well very quickly. Almost everything we could have wanted to do was within walking distance, and the people were incredibly nice. The prices for everything are far cheaper than in Bangkok or Chiang Mai, and the fellow travelers you meet, I think, are more likely to be easy to connect with; if you meet a fellow traveler in Phitsanulock, they’re clearly not in a rush to see all the big sites in Thailand, so they’re far more likely to want to meet people, talk, hang out, and have a good time with new friends. Phitsanulok was an amazing stop on our way up to Chiang Mai because it gave us the chance to keep exploring new places but also to slow down as we did so. I’m not against visiting touristy cities or places, but spending time in a city that isn’t geared towards tourism always feels worth it to me. If you find yourself in Thailand and not in a rush, visit Phitsanulok.