Things to do in Phitsanulok – Visit Phitsanulok – Budget Travel In Thailand

Phitsanulok is a lively, historical city in Northern Thailand. It is over 600 years old and used to be the country’s capital.

Continuing on our journey east from Chiang Mai, we had stayed at Lampang, Sukhothai and then on to the city of Phitsanulok. We knew almost nothing about Phitsanulok other than it had been an important city in Thailand’s history and is one the country’s oldest cities.

How To Get To Phitsanulok From Sukhothai

We took a bus from Sukhothai to Phitsanulok which took just over an hour. There are many local buses that travel between most cities in Thailand. For this entire part of our trip, we were counting on the fact that all the towns were on the Highway 12, so they would likely be connected by bus.

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Things To Do In Phitsanulok

Food And Drink In Phitsanulok 

Amarin In Town’ (map) is a craft beer bar in the heart of Phitsanulok. Craft beer is not cheap in Thailand and most of the beers here were over 200 baht. The cheapest one was Beerlau Dark at 100 baht. The bar is opened up so you can enjoy beers whilst watching the streets of Phitsanulok.

Cart Road Bar (map) describes itself as a country, folk and life music bar. What we experienced was a Thai band playing what I presume were covers as there were people singing along. The group of incredibly drunk men sat nearby who were intrigued by our group were particularly vocal. Thankfully, they were friendly drunks! We stayed for a few beers and enjoyed the music and our hostel host’s homemade rice whiskey with herbs. In Thailand’s smaller cities, you can take your own spirits into a bar and just buy soda. The bars are fine with this. Imagine that in England!

Kazoku Coffee House – Badminton Cafe (map) is not too far away from the temples and we visited this charming cafe to escape the intense heat. We were pleased to discover the cafe had excellent air-con! A badminton-themed coffee shop is not something you come across every day but the coffee was good so I wasn’t complaining.

Muslim Food In Phitsanulok – I found breakfast to be the hardest meal in Thailand. It seems that people are already making curries and frying chicken when all you want is some cereal or some toast. After a heavy night drinking in the bars of Phitsanulok, I was more than happy to enjoy curry for breakfast!

I had heard a place called ‘Yasmeen’ (map) had the best roti but when we got there it was empty and the roti was only served early in the morning. On the same street, there were numerous Muslim restaurants and so we chose the one that was the busiest. There didn’t seem to be any roti available so I ordered chicken biryani. The food was wonderful. A succulent piece of the whitest chicken, covered in a delicious curry sauce and with fragrant rice topped with crispy onions. It cost 40 baht and was the perfect breakfast for a man with a hangover!

Street Food In Phitsanulok – Located on the banks of the Nan River opposite the Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat Woramahawihan (map), we came across a small food market. The food here was great and it was wonderful to sit cross-legged on the floor, besides the river, eating with the locals.

On our first evening in Phitsanulok, we decided to take our hostel host up on his offer of joining him and the other guests for food and drinks. He took us to a typical street food place near the railway station. What was great about this place was not just that you could get a main meal with rice for only 30 baht, but that you could add meals to it for an extra 5 baht each. So, rice with 3 servings of different meals was only 40 baht! The food was fantastic too! So much so, we returned the next 2 nights! I can’t tell you what it is called but if you were to come out of the train station and turn left, it would be in the middle of the row of shops on your right.

Topland (Map) is a hidden nightclub located on the fourth floor of a hotel. We were made aware of its existence by a fellow tourist who could tell we were not happy at the local bars’ closing times. Everyone went back to the hostel apart from me and a guy from Cornwall who decided to check out the hidden club of Phitsanulok. We found the hotel easily enough (it is called ‘Topland’ and is just around the corner from the Cart Road Bar) but there were no signs that it was anything other than a hotel. Nevertheless, we caught the lift up to the fourth floor, the doors opened and… out we stepped into a decent-sized packed club with a live rock-rap band! It was amazing! All I can say is I am glad I was not staying on the 5th floor! What a thing to find! There was no indication of it at all on the street or even in the hotel. You basically had to know about it! My new friend left after a while, leaving me to enjoy a couple more beers and watch how the Thai kids like to party! Map.

Woodstock Bar (map) is located on the east side of the railway tracks. It is a funky retro bar, without being tacky. There was an offer of 3 large Leo beers for 225 baht which was as good as we’d seen in Phitsanulok. The bar was playing some cool Thai music, most of it un-shazamable, until a live band appeared. The band had some nice tunes but I lost interest when they played a Maroon 5 cover.

Phitsanulok City Park

On our final full day in Phitsanulok, we decided to take out the free bicycles from our hostel (donation of 20 baht). First of all, we headed towards the ‘Phitsanulok City Park’ (map). The entrance to the park from the main road didn’t look promising as it was mainly concrete, but once inside, we found a bike route circling a big lake which was much more appealing.

It didn’t take long to complete the route and we were about to leave when we saw a road we had not previously noticed. We couldn’t take our bikes so we parked up and walked. We were immediately glad we did!

It appeared we had the whole park to ourselves and as we walked over the bridge to the Buddha, we noticed something in the water. Something BIG! We couldn’t tell if it was a dog, an otter or a crocodile! We didn’t really imagine to see a crocodile in a public park in Thailand but that’s certainly what it looked like from afar! I watched it swim to the edge of the lake but then it seemed to vanish. Scary. We continued to explore the Buddha and the surrounding grounds. We could hear occasional voices but we didn’t see anyone in this ghost town of a park!

As we were leaving this part of the park, I noticed what appeared to be a small statue of some kind of dinosaur in the distance. It appeared to be looking straight at us.

“Is that a statue or…?”

“I don’t know. OH MY GOD, IT’S MOVING!”

Yes, the thing we had spotted was in fact moving and real and the biggest lizard we’d ever seen. I tried to get a photo but I was also worried about being eaten alive. The spiders in Chae Son National Park were scary but this was something else!!!  Thankfully, it disappeared back into the lake. Research shows that what we saw was probably an Asian Water Monitor Lizard as seen in this video.

Needless to say, we got back on our bikes and drove the hell out of there!

Phitsanulok Jo Thawee Folk Museum

Ja Thawee Folk Museum (map) offers visitors a glimpse into Phitsanulok’s past. It has four buildings showing tools, equipment, clothes, plants, toys and various other artefacts that were collected over a period of 30 years to preserve a lifestyle now mostly lost. We spent about an hour or so in there. It is not the most interesting museum in Thailand, but it is a pleasant enough way to spend a relaxing afternoon.

Ja Thawee Folk Museum Opening Times: 8.00 am – 4.30 pm, Mon – Sun.
Ja Thawee Folk Museum Entrance Fee: 50 Baht.

Phitsanulok Night Bazaar

In the evening, we headed down to the ‘Phitsanulok Night Bazaar’ (map) that runs alongside the River Nan. Unfortunately, apart from a few hotpot restaurants, there didn’t seem to be a lot of food options. Apparently, the weekend is the best time for food.

Phitsanulok Night Market

Phitsanulok Night Market is typical of most Thai night markets. It offers a great selection of food including curries, grilled meat and fish, desserts, drinks, fruit and more. It’s always a shame when you are too full to eat any more in Thailand because there is always something else you want to try!

Temples Of Phitsanulok

TheWat Chan Tawan Tok’ (map) temple is located near the Suphan Kanyala Bridge’ (map).

We stumbled across this temple by accident during a cycle around the city. It was not easy to get up close to the temple as it was being renovated and covered in scaffolding. We also had some oddball who didn’t seem to like our presence and kept trying to explain something to us which made no sense, even in sign language. We didn’t stay long. The temple is very impressive. It is probably the most beautiful temple in Phitsanulok.

Excuse our ignorance here, but we did not know just how revered the Buddha in Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahathat Phitsanulok (map) is in Thailand. We only found out after our visit how famous it is in this country. It is probably the most popular Phitsanulok tourist attraction.

Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahathat

We wandered around the temple until we came to the pagoda. You can climb up the stairs to the top but do be careful. The stairs are very steep and you do not want to take a tumble on them! If you do not like heights, it’s probably best you take your photos from down below.

Wat Phra Sri Rattana Mahathat Phitsanulok Entrance Fee: Free admission.

It was very hot and so we decided to skip ‘Wat Nang Phaya Phitsanulok’ for another time (we missed it entirely in the end).

Is Phitsanulok Worth Visiting?

Phitsanulok might not have the obvious tourist attraction like Sukhothai has with the National Park, but as a city, I enjoyed it much more. Maybe it was because we were staying in a more social place but the city itself seemed to have an energy that was somewhat missing in Sukhothai. I highly recommend you visit Phitsanulok. If you stay at Karma Hostel, say Hi to Mark from me!