Photo: Gary Todd (Public domain)
A self-guided audio tour of Si Satchanalai, the northern twin city of the Sukhothai kingdom, in three parts: Chaliang, the walled city and the kiln sites, with car or bicycle transport between them. At Chaliang, on a bend of the Yom River, stand the laterite prang of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, where the Fine Arts Department began its work in 1956, and Wat Chom Chuen, where excavations show people living here long before Si Satchanalai became a Sukhothai city. The walled city is entered by the Ram Narong Gate, one of six, and its temples include Wat Nang Phaya, the 33 chedis of Wat Chedi Chet Thaeo, Wat Chang Lom with its 39 stucco elephants, and hill temples reached by laterite stairs. Beyond the north gate lie the Pa Yang kilns and Ban Ko Noi, where more than five hundred kilns have been excavated along the riverbank and two conservation buildings keep the kilns where they were found. Si Satchanalai's ceramics were shipped overseas, to places including the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia.
20 narrations, yours to keep — no subscription, no expiry. Works offline once downloaded, and if it isn’t for you we’ll refund it.
Going somewhere with no signal? Put the guide on your home screen first, then download it from that icon while you are on wi-fi — that way you download once, and it works in airplane mode with no roaming charges. Show me the order →
Every claim in this tour traces back to a named source — excavation records, the heritage authority for the site, and the primary texts themselves. Nothing is copied from other guidebooks, and anything we can't source doesn't make the recording.
Each stop is built from OpenStreetMap · 23 features in this old town (the field-surveyed mapping database behind Apple Maps), Wikidata (peer-reviewed structured records), the heritage authority below, and the primary historical texts where they exist.
Cross-referenced against Modern excavation publications · academic peer-review.
Every sentence is checked against those sources before it is recorded. If a claim can't be traced, it doesn't make the audio.
Every tour is reviewed by a person before it goes on sale. Stop selection, the route and anything ambiguous come back to the editor for a decision, and those questions routinely send a stop back for another accuracy pass. Nothing publishes on a machine’s say-so.
Spot anything inaccurate? Email [email protected] — fixed in the next pass.
Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, Chaliang, Wat Chao Chan, Wat Chom Chuen, Wat Khok Singkharam.
Wat Phaya Dam, Ram Narong Gate and the city walls, Wat Nang Phaya, Wat Suan Kaeo Utthayan Yai, Wat Lak Mueang and the palace site, Wat Chedi Chet Thaeo, Wat Suan Kaeo Utthayan Noi, Wat Chang Lom, Wat Khao Suwan Khiri.
Wat Chedi Kao Yot, Wat Khao Phanom Phloeng, Pratu Tao Mo, the north gate, Wat Kuti Rai, Pa Yang kilns, Ban Ko Noi Sangkhalok Kiln Study and Conservation Centre, Kilns 42 and 123 conservation building.
Chaliang's principal temple, a laterite prang that may have been built over an earlier lotus-bud stupa, with a walking Buddha in the hall before it.
One of the six gates of the walled city, its passage deliberately crooked, through an inner wall of laterite.
Some 33 chedis and small buildings, which Prince Damrong Rajanubhab suggested might mark a royal cemetery.
A Lanka-shaped chedi ringed by 39 freestanding stucco elephants, so that the elephants seem to carry it.
The hilltop temple chosen as the city's sacred high place, reached by laterite stairs.
Two kiln groups, nineteen and five kilns built one on top of another, with a corridor that runs all the way round them.
Tap "Start Walking Tour" and allow location access. The map shows all 20 narration points.
Follow the suggested route or explore freely. GPS tracks your position. Reach a site and the narration plays automatically.
Each site has its own narration. 20 narration points.
Narrations play when you reach each site. No buttons, no track numbers. Walk naturally — the stories find you.
Premium narration that sounds like a documentary. Warm and knowledgeable, not a textbook reading.
Every narration is drafted, cross-checked against primary sources, then passed through a second editorial pass that strips unsupported claims. Dates, names, and citations verified.
See all narration points on the map. Tap any point to hear it early or replay it later.
Every narrated point in Si Satchanalai — Chaliang and the Sangkhalok Kilns, each with its own narration.
Spend an hour or a full day. Skip sites, revisit favourites, take breaks. The tour adapts to you.
20 narration points, including Wat Chao Chan, Wat Chom Chuen, Wat Nang Phaya, Wat Chedi Chet Thaeo and Wat Chang Lom. That is about 20 minutes of narration in all, and you walk between the stops at your own pace.
Yes. It plays in your phone’s browser as you walk: no guide, no group, no app to install and no fixed start time.
Three ways, all built in:
The map-tap option means you can stand anywhere — even at home before you travel — and play any narration. GPS just makes it hands-free while you’re actually walking the site.
No. Use the “Download for offline” button before you go, and the entire tour — audio, maps, narration text — works without any data connection. Tap-to-play and the map both work fully offline. GPS itself doesn’t need data; only the download does.
Add the icon first, then download from the icon. On iPhone a guide downloaded in Safari cannot be seen by the home screen icon, so downloading first means downloading the whole thing twice.
Putting it on your home screen — iPhone or iPad (Safari):
On Android (Chrome): tap the three-dot menu at the top right, tap Add to Home screen (some phones say Install app), then confirm. On Android either order works.
If you opened this link from inside Instagram, Facebook or Gmail, you are in that app’s built-in browser. It cannot add anything to your home screen, and a guide downloaded there is thrown away when the app closes. Open the link in Safari or Chrome first.
Two backstops. First, the map shows every site — just tap the marker for the place in front of you. Second, you can manually queue any narration even when GPS is off. The platform never assumes GPS works; it’s the convenience layer, not the gate.
The audio runs ~3 hours, with the rides between the three parts total, but you walk at your own pace. 20 narration points across the site. Most visitors take 2–4 hours; some spread it over multiple visits. Once you buy it, it’s yours — there’s no expiry and no subscription. Come back next year if you like; the link in your receipt always works.
One purchase covers one device session. Most couples share earbuds and use a single phone — the audio is paced for that. If you want everyone listening on their own device, each person needs their own purchase. We do not gate sharing aggressively; we trust visitors to do the right thing.
Full refund if you never trigger a single narration on-site. Partial refund based on how far you got. See the refund policy for specifics.