It wasn’t the plan. The plan was to take the night train from Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai, so how did we end up in Phitsanulok?

Well, it’s a long story in that the process went on for several months, as the information I could find on the timing allowed to book the night train kept changing. With only a couple of sleeper cars each day on the route, bunks can fill up fast.

I began searching for tickets as early as May 2024 for February 2025, all while knowing it was too far in advance, but trying to get a read on when I could make the bookings. Some sources said only 90 days in advance, so I bookmarked the date in November to check. By late June, other sources advised that the timing was changing, and tickets would be available at an earlier date.

But, alas, when I looked again in late August, tickets were already sold out, and it now appears the long-distance cars can be booked six months in advance.

We needed a new plan.

By road, Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai is a long trip, taking close to 11 hours. No, thank you. Thus, we decided to cut off a night elsewhere and break up the trip in, you guessed it, Phitsanulok.

I had no idea what Phitlok, as it’s known, was all about other than it is a gateway stop to the 1st capital of Thailand at Sukhothai.

The train ride from Ayutthaya was around five hours of sheer fun. We rolled along the countryside, stopping in several small towns for passengers to get on and off, and enjoyed a variety of “train food” sold by the vendors who jumped on and off at the stations. With our early morning departure, our 2nd-class non-aircon seats stayed at a pleasant temperature. I do love train travel.

We had purchased our tickets from 12GoAsia, a very popular website that arranges transportation via bus, train, and vans. As with almost everything Thai, the prices were extremely reasonable at $9.00 USD per person.

Phitsanulok is a smallish city of a little over 60,000 and set in a lovely, rural area. While there is enough in town to keep someone busy for a day (not to mention being a gateway to the incredible ruins at Sukhothai!), we were just looking for a soft place to land before continuing our journey to Chiang Mai.

As is often the case, I headed to Travelfish to research lodging. Ever since our first trip to SE Asia back in the early 2000s, I’ve trusted their advice because the reviews are done by people actually on the ground in the country. Based on their reviews, we made a 1-night reservation at P1 House.

What can I say? Well, the rooms were bright and attractively decorated with tile bathrooms and updated paint and linens. The price was also right at $19/night. The rest? Well, it wasn’t a stellar experience, with somewhat surly staff, no live music, and hallways so dark that a flashlight would have been a good idea. But at the end of the day, we got a room close to the train station and centrally located to meander to the market to explore.

After spending hours at Ayutthaya the day before, the idea of searching out more historical ruins wasn’t appealing, but the idea of watching families at the weekend market was. We spent some time checking out all of the artisan crafts and attempting to decipher what food some market stalls offered.

It was nice to see families wandering the markets together, and markets are always a great look into a country’s culture.

With little open on the weekend, we did enjoy smoothies at a lovely coffee shop, which was quite the teen hangout and absolutely gorgeously decorated.

We found a little restaurant nearby for dinner, but everyone was looking forward to an early evening before our van picked us up for our 6-hour drive to Chiang Mai the next morning.

Instead, upon arriving back to Phra Ong Dam road, we heard the noise. Just relentless squawking from the thousands of birds that had decided to occupy nearly every roof and patio on the street. Many of the locals in Phitlok don’t speak English, but one young man selling gourmet popcorn from his storefront told us that every night from 6:00 – 10:00 pm, the birds all converge on that street for no apparent reason.

Even with earplugs, we can advise that on our evening in town, the birdies sang until around midnight 🙂

No worries….the next morning we bid goodbye to Phitsanulok and boarded our van to Chiang Mai!