7 Best Sights in Northern Thailand, Thailand

The magnificent Hall of Opium is a white stucco, glass, marble, and aluminum building nestled in a valley above the Mekong. The site is so close to former poppy fields that a plan is still being considered to extend the complex to encompass an "open-air" exhibit of a functioning opium plantation. The museum traces the history of the entire drug trade, including a look at how mild stimulants like coffee and tea took hold in the West. It even attempts to give visitors a taste of the "opium experience" by leading them through a long tunnel where atmospheric music wafts between walls bearing phantasmagoric bas-relief scenes. The synthetic smell of opium was originally pumped into the tunnel but the innovation was dropped after official complaints.

It's an arresting introduction to an imaginatively designed and assembled exhibition, which reaches back into the murky history of the opium trade and takes a long look into a potentially darker future.

The 193 sights historic sites within the Sukhothai district are considered part of the historic park and are covered in the single entrance fee. Most of the key sites such as Noen Prasat (the Royal Palace) and Wat Mahathat are within the moated city walls but it's worth heading farther afield to Wat Saphan Hin, which offers an elevated vista of the valley below, dotted with Sukhothai’s signature ruins.

Until the 13th century most of Thailand consisted of small vassal states under the thumb of the Khmer Empire based in Angkor Wat. But the Khmers had overextended their reach, allowing the princes of two Thai states to combine forces. In 1238 one of the two princes, Phor Khun Bang Klang Thao, marched on Sukhothai, defeating the Khmer garrison commander in an elephant duel. Installed as the new king of the region, he took the name Sri Indraditya and founded a dynasty that ruled Sukhothai for nearly 150 years. His youngest son became the third king of Sukhothai, Ramkhamhaeng, who ruled from 1279 to 1299. Through military and diplomatic victories, he expanded the kingdom to include most of present-day Thailand and the Malay Peninsula. By the mid-14th century Sukhothai’s power and influence had waned, and Ayutthaya, once its vassal state, became the capital of the Thai kingdom.

Sukhothai was gradually abandoned to the jungle, and a new town grew up about 14 km (9 miles) away. A decade-long restoration project costing more than $10 million created ths 70-square-km (27-square-mile) Sukhothai Historical Park. Sukhothai is busiest during the Loi Krathong festival, which is celebrated in the Historical Park each year on the full moon in November. Its well-orchestrated, three-day light-and-sound show is the highlight.

Sitting amid a tranquil lotus pond, Wat Mahathat is the largest and most beautiful monastery in Sukhothai. Enclosed in the compound are some 200 tightly packed chedis, each containing the funeral ashes of a member of the royal family. Towering above them is a large central chedi, notable for its bulbous, lotus-bud prang. Wrapping around the chedi is a frieze of 111 monks, their hands raised in adoration. Probably built by Sukhothai's first king, Wat Mahathat owes its present form to King Lö Thai, who in 1345 erected the lotus-bud chedi to house two important relics brought back from Sri Lanka by the monk Sisatta. This Sri Lankan–style chedi became the symbol of Sukhothai and classical Sukhothai style. Copies of it were made in the principal cities of its vassal states, signifying a magic circle emanating from Sukhothai, the spiritual and temporal center of the empire.

On a hilltop in Tambon Pa Daeng, this late-12th-century temple is distinguished by its 33-meter-tall (108-foot-tall) golden chedi and breathtaking interior. The chedi is linked to a viharn, a later construction that contains a series of murals depicting scenes from the Buddha's life. The revered Buddha image is said to increase a woman's fertility. Cho Hae is the name given to the cloth woven by the local people, and in the fourth lunar month (June) the chedi is wrapped in this fabric during the annual fair. A fairly steep multitier staircase leads up to the temple.

Nan has one of the region's most unusual and beautiful temples, Wat Phumin, whose murals alone make a visit to this part of northern Thailand worthwhile. It's an economically constructed temple, combining the main shrine hall and viharn, and qualifies as one of northern Thailand's best examples of folk architecture. To enter, you climb a short flight of steps flanked by two superb nagas (mythological snakes), their heads guarding the north entrance and their tails the south. The 16th-century temple was extensively renovated in 1865 and 1873, and at the end of the 19th century murals picturing everyday life were added to the inner walls. Some have a unique historical context—like the French colonial soldiers disembarking at a Mekong River port with their wives in crinolines. A fully rigged merchant ship and a primitive steamboat are portrayed as backdrops to scenes showing colonial soldiers leering at the pretty local girls corralled in a palace courtyard. Even the conventional Buddhist images have a lively originality, ranging from the traumas of hell to the joys of courtly life. The bot's central images are also quite unusual—four Sukhothai Buddhas locked in conflict with the evil Mara.

One of Thailand's most astonishing buildings, Wat Rong Khun stands like a glistening, sugar-coated wedding cake beside the A-1 Chiang Rai–Bangkok motorway south of Chiang Rai. Popularly called the White Temple because of its lustrous exterior, the extraordinary structure was built by internationally renowned Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat, assisted by a team of more than 40 young artists, craftsmen, and construction workers, as a Buddhist act of winning merit. The glistening effect comes from thousands of reflective glass mosaics set into the white stucco. In addition to the Buddhas, there are images from contemporary culture, including spaceships and Superman. A songthaew ride to the temple from Chiang Rai costs about B50.

Like many other sanctuaries, Wat Si Chum was originally surrounded by a moat, and the main structure is dominated by a statue of the Buddha in a seated position. The huge but elegant stucco image is one of the largest in Thailand, measuring 11¼ meters (37 feet) from knee to knee. Enter the mondop, a ceremonial structure, through the passage inside the left inner wall. Keep your eyes on the ceiling: more than 50 engraved slabs illustrate scenes from the Jataka, which are stories about the previous lives of Lord Buddha.