Exploring ancient ruins in Thailand and Switzerland of Thailand - Episode 8

Added: 2026-05-15

[00:00:09]In this episode, it gets very foggy.

[00:00:13]I ride across bridges.

[00:00:16]I find ancient ruins.

[00:00:19]I see stunning sunsets.

[00:00:21]And I rode through the night to find food.

[00:00:27]Morning.

[00:00:28]Well, waking up to a lot of fog. I've actually waited about half an hour as it was too thick before.

[00:00:34]Hopefully it's clearing. Well, it looks like that.

[00:00:37]Update on last night's dinner.

[00:00:39]I'd seen a picture in the elevator, so I took picture of the picture and went to where the restaurant was and said, "Ah, this." And the guy was like, "Ah, it's our signature dish."

[00:00:49]And I went, "Cool.

[00:00:51]Where do I go for it?" And he's like, "Ah, the kitchen's closed today."

[00:00:54]So, no dinner. There's nothing else around.

[00:00:58]So, I'll be looking for something else tasty tonight.

[00:01:03]All right. We are going south.

[00:01:07]I got onto the bike and rode into the thick fog.

[00:01:17]I made a quick stop for fuel, then it was back into the fog.

[00:01:29]The sun seemed to be breaking through the clouds, but it didn't last long and it was back into the thick of it.

[00:01:41]I was continuing making my way south. I was further east compared to where I'd made my way north, as I'd spotted some interesting buildings that looked like they were very old.

[00:02:04]>> I was back in the dense jungle again. It was as if the jungle was trying to engulf the road and claim the land back.

[00:02:12]From above, I could imagine it was a black ribbon through all the green.

[00:02:17]They do turns onto motorways a little different here, where you go a fair bit left to end up going right.

[00:02:38]There were plenty of two tractors, also referred to as iron buffaloes, like in Vietnam.

[00:03:23]I rode into this small town.

[00:03:28]Then came upon a small but long wooden plank bridge.

[00:03:33]It doesn't look like the sturdiest thing, but I'm gathering the locals would have blocked the entrance if there was any issues with it. So, on I went.

[00:04:10]>> Made it to the first of these historical sites.

[00:04:15]I was going to call them ruins, but they're not actually ruined. They're just old, weathered patina.

[00:04:21]The temple is a major 13th century royal temple, and it's surrounded by ruins including an ordination hall and a large stupa.

[00:04:31]It is known for its impressive Khmer style architecture and is often termed as a hidden gem of the north of Thailand.

[00:04:49]It seems to have stood the test of time as the building has crumbled around it, the Buddha itself.

[00:04:55]Bit of patina, but not too bad. Mhm, unless it's been restored.

[00:05:01]Should check out the fingers. They're very long.

[00:05:10]These little ones on the side haven't fared as well. So, that makes me think the large Buddha has had some sort of restoration done to it.

[00:05:19]Old temples in Thailand traditionally used stucco, a mixture of lime, sand, and other binding agents. But, you can see where these ones over the centuries have been worn down to just the bricks.

[00:05:33]These statues are a couple of stories high.

[00:05:40]I gather this wall also had been covered in stucco. But again, time and weather seem to break down just about everything.

[00:05:51]In the main temple building, you can actually climb the stairs to the top.

[00:06:00]They're extremely steep stairs.

[00:06:03]I'm literally scrambling up hands and feet.

[00:06:28]It's amazing these places have survived nearly 800 years. Imagine how many people have seen this place over those centuries and how many empires have come and gone around the world while this place was quietly sitting in the jungle.

[00:06:51]I made my way back over the bridge as I worked out which street I had to take to continue heading south.

[00:06:59]Eventually finding the right one, which again put me on another small narrow but long bridge.

[00:07:06]This one, however, was built with a lot more substantial materials, steel and concrete.

[00:07:48]>> I spotted another massive gold Buddha along the road. It seemed a very unusual place, just sitting on the side of the highway.

[00:07:56]And next to it was a large seven-headed serpent.

[00:08:25]I rode into the second place I'd found on the map with historical buildings, but this one was a lot bigger.

[00:08:34]Apologies for the bad pronunciation. It was the Sukhothai Historical Park, which covers the ruins of Sukhothai, meaning dawn of happiness.

[00:08:46]There were 193 ruins on 70 square kilometers or 27 square miles of land.

[00:08:52]The oldest was built in the early 13th century.

[00:08:57]This was the place I really wanted to check out, Wat Si Chum.

[00:09:02]It has a large mandapa, which has a square base of 32 m on each side, and 15 m high, with the walls being 3 ft thick.

[00:09:12]Inside is an 11-m wide by 15-m high seated Buddha.

[00:09:22]Probably the most stunning Buddha I've seen on this journey.

[00:09:26]It's almost as if it is entombed in a box.

[00:09:30]I gather it's helped preserve it for all these centuries.

[00:09:41]>> I followed a little dirt track to another spot further around the historical park.

[00:10:00]The actual grounds of the park were beautiful and peaceful with these magnificent trees to take a break under.

[00:10:11]This was Wat Chang Long. It is a temple complex consisting of large stupas in the Lan Kek style with the remains of a gallery and the ruins of an ordination hall.

[00:10:30]I rode off from the historical park and again I'm amazed at how old these structures were and it made me wonder how long they'll be here into the future.

[00:10:43]I passed some of the moats that surround this ancient city.

[00:11:18]I came across more ruins and another wall and moted city.

[00:11:37]>> It's always fun navigating through cities. You've just got to think like you're in a school of fish. Everybody giving space to everybody else.

[00:12:23]There was more timber harvesting going on.

[00:12:38]And more fires.

[00:12:46]I pulled over for some fuel. Then I saw a store, so I pulled up to get some supplies. Plus, look for the next place to stay. On the map, I'd found a place that looked like it was in some kind of walled valley.

[00:13:01]So, that's where I was heading.

[00:13:13]I saw a mountain in the distance, which meant I was getting closer to the valley.

[00:13:35]>> This is Ban Chai Khao, nicknamed Thai Switzerland.

[00:13:40]It roughly translates to village at the foot of the mountain, which seems very appropriate.

[00:13:47]The mountains may not be as high as Switzerland, but they sure are beautiful.

[00:14:06]It seemed I'd come to the end of the valley.

[00:14:10]So, I checked out where the accommodation was and headed back.

[00:14:36]The location on the map wasn't not quite lining up as this didn't look like the photos on the accommodation app.

[00:14:45]Thank you. But, a kind farmer gave me some directions.

[00:14:55]I had to take a dirt road through the fields.

[00:15:10]This looked more like the photos.

[00:15:14]But, there was an issue. The lady running the accommodation said the place was broken, but then said she had another accommodation place and asked if I'd like to see that. I said, "Sure."

[00:15:29]So, I followed her back into the valley.

[00:15:36]This one was at the other end of the valley.

[00:15:43]We pulled up to a large wooden house.

[00:15:51]We walked in to check it out.

[00:15:53]But, then she stopped and with a quick Google translation said there was a third place I could check out. Seeing I was already at this place, I might as well have a look.

[00:16:06]It was great.

[00:16:08]But, with plenty of daylight left, I thought I might as well check out the third.

[00:16:17]It was a stand-alone place that looked right up the center of the valley.

[00:16:24]Well, it took a bit, but we got there in the end.

[00:16:27]So, the whole story is first place, something was broken.

[00:16:32]They assisted the place is broken, but they had another place. Had a look at the little wooden one up here, which looked nice.

[00:16:37]There's no Wi-Fi and she said something else. She goes, "Oh, no, I've got it I've got another place." So, there's this building which I think is brand new.

[00:16:46]There's a spa, but there's no water in it. Pool spa.

[00:16:50]It's got little jets, so it must be a spa, maybe.

[00:16:53]And you know, it's good. It's good and I get the view straight up the valley.

[00:16:59]There is a little restaurant I saw on the way in. I may go in seeing I missed out on dinner last night.

[00:17:05]I'm going to see if I can have a crack tonight and maybe I'll get lucky. Ah, and how are these caves just up here?

[00:17:15]Don't know if you can get to them.

[00:17:17]Just realized something.

[00:17:18]These two new places, there's stairs on the other side.

[00:17:21]So, let's see if there's stairs on this side.

[00:17:25]I think there are.

[00:17:29]Yes, there is. And we're even higher up.

[00:17:32]Not a bad view. Not a bad view at all.

[00:17:37]Looking out to the west, because that's where the sun's sitting.

[00:17:40]Pretty obvious. Sorry about that.

[00:17:43]It doesn't look like the sun's going to break through it and light this up.

[00:17:46]Oh, well.

[00:17:50]The area features karst topography, the same as you see in the north of Vietnam and the south of China.

[00:18:01]It's quite striking here, due to most of the land around it being flat. So, you can see it from a long way away.

[00:18:12]These mountains are made of limestone and feature a lot of caves.

[00:18:30]So, in the end, the sun did make an appearance. Just a little one, but an appearance. May have got a shot or two.

[00:18:37]This little valley is just, yeah, stunning. I say that a lot, but this this one this one is.

[00:18:45]I'm now going to see if I can get some food.

[00:18:48]Not like last night.

[00:18:51]Wish me luck.

[00:19:02]There's not a lot of traffic here.

[00:19:05]There was some other accommodation places, including this glamping one.

[00:19:15]There was a small restaurant then, the place I'd seen on the way in.

[00:19:24]It was soon apparent that the atmosphere they were trying to create was not my liking. So, I went to the first small empty restaurant.

[00:19:45]So, I went to the first restaurant which looked pretty nice.

[00:19:50]There's a musician there, and it only happens sometimes, but you'll get a musician that thinks they're the main part of going to restaurant, and the PA was so loud, I couldn't read the menu cuz I couldn't think straight.

[00:20:04]That could be my issue, too. Two things at once. It was so loud. I can hear him at about the volume I'd like about 150 m away.

[00:20:15]But, we've come here. There's no one here, so support another local venue.

[00:20:20]And it's something to do with pork and noodles, I think. We'll see what it is.

[00:20:24]Oh, and they went straight away. No spice. No soy sauce. No spice.

[00:20:31]It actually looks really good.

[00:20:33]We'll see if they forgot the spice.

[00:20:36]They'll leave the spice out.

[00:20:46]There you go.

[00:20:48]They just brought over a spoon and a fork cuz they saw me trying to eat with chopsticks.

[00:20:55]It is really, really good.

[00:20:57]I don't know what's in it, but it is really tasty.

[00:21:00]I just worked out I was using the wrong end of the chopsticks, so that's probably why they brought me the spoon and fork.

[00:21:07]Amateur hour over here.

[00:21:09]Look at that. It works so much better when you use them the right way around.

[00:21:12]Did I mention how good it was?

[00:21:16]Winning. We've had a win.

[00:21:20]It was really really good and I'm a little bit puzzled.

[00:21:24]For the food and the drink was 60 baht, which is $2.80 Australian.

[00:21:31]That just doesn't make sense.

[00:21:35]The restaurant dog was sniffing my socks and the way he backed up may suggest I need to wash them.

[00:21:46]Now with a full and very satisfied belly, I headed back to the accommodation.

[00:21:53]It was the end of another day where at the start of the day I had no real plan except to keep heading south and try and find some ruins. I love traveling like this. Just see what the day brings.

[00:22:10]And today it definitely delivered.

[00:22:23]Oh my love.

[00:22:29]You're such a fragile thing, I know.

[00:22:34]In the next episode, I explore a hidden oasis in one of the mountains. I wander into a rubber plantation.

[00:22:42]I find more dirt trails.

[00:22:45]I bump into this guy. I race a train and I find a couple of amazing trees.

[00:22:53]Don't worry about the cold just yet.

[00:22:59]The trees haven't started to shed.