The journey to Nakhon Si Thammarat via minibus from Krabi (200 baht) was just 3-4 hours, but the distance between here and the tourist path seems much larger on arrival. There are no Western tourists here, in fact we struggled to identify any tourists at all. 
 
After locating a suitable place to stay just off the Ratchadamnoen Road (main road that spans 7km from North to South) we headed through the local market for snacks and then hunted down the tourist office. 
 
I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of maps in English and a helpful lady who wanted to share with us everything the city had to offer. Unfortunately her English was a struggle to understand and perhaps ours was just as bad as we left with a well marked up map and little else.
  
The city is split between the modern area in the North and the old city area in the South. The main sights are well set up for tourists with signs and information in English, but there is a complete lack of visitors. In some cases this seems a great shame, as they must have spent a fair bit on the fancy leaflets that promote some of the sights.
 
Getting around is simple enough despite the language barrier. Just hail one of the many blue songtaews along Ratchadamnoen Road and get on for the fixed fee of 10 baht and get off wherever you want. Note that there's an large number of students using these at certain points throughout the day but they will often jump on the back and give up their seat for you in exchange for a smile and a 'sawadee-kaa/krap' greeting. 
 
Everywhere we went the locals would stare, initially seeming unfriendly, but a smile and 'hello' soon has them grinning back. A lot of the time we felt like celebrities, particularly where school children were concerned as they insisted on saying hello and taking photos, especially when visiting temples.
 
Dealing with the language barrier

One afternoon we decided to head to the modern part of town for some shopping and specifically to continue our ongoing search for a headphone splitter; which seems impossible to locate anywhere outside of Bangkok.
 
As we wandered from stall to stall, inside one of the malls, it was a case of playing charades to try to indicate what we wanted. Resorting to drawing 2 sets of headphones on a scrap of paper, at one point we had a whole group of stall owners searching through their stock suggesting possible solutions. Even the security guard joined in trying to help by locating an English speaker from a nearby pharmacy to translate. This resulted in sighs of recognition and a disappointed shaking of heads as no one actually had one! 
 
We left the smiling helpers, chuckling to ourselves from the experience, but empty handed. As well as our drawing, we now had the Thai characters for headphone splitter scribbled down, in the hope of finding one at the next stop.
 
Recommendations
 
Nakhon Si Thamarat doesn't come up on the average travellers radar all that often. You may have come across its existence via the myth that the predecessor to Rama I was sent here in secret; rather than being beaten in a velvet sack with a sandle wood stick, as perceived in Anna and the King? Or you may know it for Wat Phra Mahathat which is the main pilgrimage site in the South of Thailand.
 
Whether you have heard of it or not I recommend a stop here as there are a few places to visit aside from the famous wat.
 
Old city walls - the size is similar to the walls in Chiang Mai which indicates just how important this city once was. Wandering round at sunset near the park you will be joined by runners and a few street hawkers but it's local life at its best.
 
Wat Phra Mahathat - it's beautiful and bursting with chedi, next door is the Viharn Kien museum with a large number of artefacts; both of which do not have an entrance fee. Be sure to look inside the monastery to the left of the main temple area, which was deserted when we were there, but someone let us in despite it seeming closed.
 
Suchart Subsin's shadow puppet museum - a small museum, but interesting to see how the puppets are made by hand from cow hide. We unfoetunately didn't catch a show by the famous puppet master who has performed twice for the king and won numerous awards.
 
National museum - amidst the artefacts is an interesting exhibition depicting major life events for Nakhon people including the process of being ordained as a monk which was very interesting. The coconut scraper collection had an interesting piece.
 
Khao Luang national park - seems popular for the waterfalls and hiking but it was too wet during our visit to venture out of town to check this out.
 
Bavorn bazaar - note that there is no longer anything here, or perhaps the empty premises was just seasonal. The Hao coffee shop and a reasonable restaurant serving Western and Thai food can be found just at the entrance and the latter is popular with expats in the evening.
 
A few other tips:
 
- The road running adjacent to Ratchadamnoen Road on the East side of town has 'white' songtaews. Be prepared to wait a long time to catch one unlike for the 'blue' ones, which are like ants!
- Alcohol is sold in bars and restaurants but it's likely to be one of the last places where beer is readily available as our next stop didn't even allow it in the hotel.
- This is not a backpacker type place and you will feel out of place and unfamiliar, even with the food (eg the Tom Yam is hotter and the local speciality Khanoom Jin, noodles with a peanut sauce, is served cold?). Just take it all in and enjoy the experience.

We would have stayed a day or two more but as usual the time limit on a VOA was hanging over us.