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Our bus arrives in Phitsanulok from Bangkok at about 3:30 in the afternoon. We are very happy to see that Jan's brother Dave and his wife Jhap are waiting to meet us. With them are Jhap's 20-year old son Thor and her brother-in-law Suladay, who is along to help Dave with the driving.

We are all meeting in Phitsanulok for two reasons. First Gerry and I didn't want to make the entire journey by bus to Chiang Mai without a break, and more important nearby there is a very famous old Thai city called Sukhothai. Coincidentally, Thor is studying in Phitsanulok, so it also means that we will get to spend some time with him, which would have been impossible otherwise because of his studies.

We settle in to our nice hotel room and immediately give the gifts we have brought for Jhap and Dave. We are anxious to see if they have survived the journey as they are rather fragile being made of porcelain. Jhap is lucky in that her statue of Guanyin (the goddess of mercy) is intact. Sadly we find that the hand of the lady in the rickshaw that we bought for Dave is broken off. Fortunately a bit of superglue should take care of the problem.

Gerry and I go out just before dark for a short walk across the railway tracks to the river and back through the shopping district of town. Here we find a taste of things to come with lots of clothing and shoe stores offering what seem like bargains. After showering and changing, we all go out to eat dinner at the Phae Fa Thai restaurant which is on the other side of the river from our hotel. We get a table on a small boat owned by the restaurant and cruise on the river while eating a delicious and quite romantic dinner.

We wake up the next morning to breaking news about the US election. The election was held on November 7, but was so close that everything revolves around the results in Florida which has 25 electors. The Gore camp is pushing for recounts because Bush won by a very small margin (the actual number keeps changing but it was less than a thousand out of 6 million votes cast). We have to tear ourselves away and get downstairs to breakfast, which is a very nice buffet.

Our first goal of the day is to visit a very famous nearby temple called Wat Phra Si Ratana Mahathat (Wat Yai) with its main idol, Phra Puttha Chinnarat, which is one of the most famous in Thailand according to Lonely Planet and our resident expert, Jhap. It is our first temple and so we take lots and lots of photos. Jan is asked to wear a shawl around her shoulders and a sarong because she is in shorts and tank-top. Gradually she learns to dress modestly when a temple visit is planned.

Preparations are going on in the temple to spruce the place up for an impending visit by one of the royal family. Just after we complete our visit we learn that they have just closed the temple to visitors to complete the preparations. We made it just in time!

Before leaving, we take our first chance to get some Thai cash from an ATM machine. We're happy when it works first time. The ability to get cash like this is one of the true marvels of modern technology. On our first visit to Thailand in 1978, we relied on travellers' checks which usually had to be cashed at a bank. The ATM is much quicker and easier.