There have been several kingdoms in various parts of the geographical area that is now Thailand. The earliest were centered in the north of the country around Chiang Saeng and Chiang Mai. Sukhothai became the capital of the first truly "Thai" kingdom in the 13th century when two rival kingdoms merged. Sukhothai and its leaders held sway for some 300 years. Then it was itself conquered and absorbed by another kingdom whose capital was further south in the city of Ayutthaya that we were to visit on a subsequent trip to Thailand.

The remains of the city is now a national historic park. The park covers a rather large area and the green bermuda grass is dotted with the remains of temples and Buddhist statues. We spent a wonderful couple of hours wandering around from statue to statue and temple to temple. All four of us were snap happy and Jhap and Gerry were both also taking video. We finished our visit with a look at the nice little museum and finally left at about two o'clock to eat a late lunch in a very pleasant indoor-outdoor cafe just outside of the museum.

At this point Jan was feeling the effects of the heat and high humidity but a cold drink and a bite to eat soon get her back in shape.

Sukhothai to Lampang to Chiang Mai

Our goal for tonight is Chiang Mai, but we have to stop in the small town of Lampang to rendezvous with Jhap's sister and brother-in-law, who are to accompany us to Chiang Mai. We arrive in Lampang just as night falls and take a ride in a horse-drawn carriage around town and then visit the night bazaar. We make our rendezvous, switch drivers, saying goodbye to Suladay and hello to Pibol and Pidom. Pidom drives us to Chiang Mai and we check in at the Chang Inn. We walk across the street to have dinner in the night market food court and then window shop a little before turning in. Actually, most places we look are open stalls so it is hard to call it ‘window’ shopping!