Phitsanulok: A First-Timer's Guide to Thailand's Crossroads City
Phitsanulok is the city most travellers pass through on the way to somewhere else — and the one they wish they had stopped in. Sitting on the Nan River roughly halfway between Bangkok (about 380 km south) and Chiang Mai, this historic lower-northern city was once a capital in its own right, the birthplace of King Naresuan the Great, and home to what many Thais consider the most beautiful Buddha image in the country. It is also one of Thailand's great transport crossroads, which makes it the easiest historic city in the region to reach, base in, and explore from. Why Phitsanulok Matters Phitsanulok — locals shorten it to "Phitlok" — served as a capital of Siam for 25 years in the 15th century and as the second capital of the Sukhothai and Ayutthaya kingdoms. King Naresuan, who freed Siam from Burmese rule, was born at the Chan Palace here in 1555. That history is not locked in a museum: it lives in Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat (Wat Yai), where Thais still queue every mor...