Forget the big cities – go to the provinces

If I asked you to name a city in the United States, you may say New York. In the UK? London. France? You know which one you’d pick.

How about Thailand? Most would say Bangkok.

Capital cities (and other main cities) usually get all the attention. It’s natural; flights start and end there, that’s where the people and the economy are, and often where the buzz and excitement of culture are headquartered.

But what about the places outside the capital cities, the places where the vast majority of people live? Aren’t they worth a look too?

A traveler who is really looking to explore and to learn and to experience will hopefully find him- or herself in some smaller, lesser-known places. Maybe even places they hadn’t heard of just a day or two earlier.

Getting out of Bangkok

Having seen Bangkok a few times, I knew it to be a capable, sprawling, technologically advanced city where everything is available, vehicle exhaust is thick, faces are anonymous, and noise is unavoidable. On balance, there’s actually a lot to like about Thailand’s capital, and you can’t say you’ve seen the country until you’ve spent some time there.

When Masayo and I found ourselves on a train bound right for Bangkok, we weren’t planning on staying there; it’s just where trains go.

After some difficulty leaving Chumphon — twice we went to the station to find our train was delayed and had to trudge back to Kae’s Guesthouse – we finally left on our third attempt the next morning. We watched the green, dusty Thai countryside roll by all afternoon.

(Our tickets were third-class, meaning there were open windows instead of air conditioning, tired, sweaty-looking locals, people selling interesting if suspect-looking things from trays, and the rest of it. Train travel in Thailand is always great fun!)

Hello Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok and headed immediately for the ticket counter to figure out where we should go.

The travel gods spoke: a train one hour north to Ayutthaya was leaving soon. We bought more third-class tickets, and waited at a cafe in the station until our train left at 6 pm.

Goodbye Bangkok

And that was the sum total of our time in Bangkok today. The city serves as a useful hub (as we proved) but gets boring as a destination in and of itself… especially for the inquisitive wanderer who hasn’t seen everything else yet.

Ayutthaya is smaller, and crammed full with ancient, crumbling temples and a relaxed, friendly, manageable street vibe. You can ride a dinghy-ferry across the river from the train station and walk uneasily through streets past lean, beady-eyed stray dogs.

As for us, we found a room at Baan Lotus Guesthouse, a striking place nestled off a back road under giant, swaying, deep-green trees.

Bangkok is a nice introduction, but the heart of Thailand lies everywhere else too… like here in Ayutthaya.

Do you prefer big cities or smaller unknown places? Which do you naturally gravitate towards when traveling?

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