Nakhon Si Thammarat

Behind a backlit cotton screen, a shadow puppet master works intricate cowhide figures — heroes and demons locked in a battle older than the town itself. Nakhon Si Thammarat is one of Thailand's oldest cities, and its traditions — the puppets, the stupa, the ferocious cooking — survive here in a form Bangkok smoothed away long ago.

Nakhon Si Thammarat is a provincial capital on the Gulf coast of southern Thailand, home to Wat Phra Mahathat — a temple complex whose central stupa, in its present form, dates to the 13th century and ranks as the south's most sacred Buddhist site. The city is the last stronghold of nang talung, southern Thai shadow puppetry: masters still carve cowhide figures and perform in the old quarter. The cooking is southern Thai at full strength — sour fish curries heavy with turmeric, chilli-spiked rice salads, fried chicken with a gold crust — and the city sits so far below the tourist radar that most international visitors skip it entirely en route to the islands.