Janet was displeased

After Ayutthaya, we headed north to see temples even more ancient. Sukothai preceded Ayutthaya and was the first independent Thai kingdom.

We stayed at the Lithai Guesthouse in the town of Phitsanulok, about an hour away from Sukothai. It was as advertised, and we enjoyed several conveniences, though I don't recall dreaming.


In our last visa-run to Penang, I bought a compact fishing rod and reel and some lures for $10. Since Phitsanulok is on a river, I thought it was the perfect chance to try it out.. but I caught nothing. =(


In Phitsanulok, birds come out at night. Thousands of them. Think the movie Birds. There are so many of them sitting on the telephone lines and in trees that the sound is deafening. It's really quite creepy.

We stood under a bird-filled tree while Janet was taking the below picture. Always the clever one, I thought it was a bright idea to scare some of the birds out of the tree so they would fly to the telephone line and improve her picture. I scared the sh*t out of them, literally, right onto her head. Janet was displeased.


And of course, we saw some temples. We took a day trip to Sukothai and rented bikes. There are five zones, four with scattered and less preserved temples, and a very well-maintained central zone. Since the temperature was easily above 35C/95F, we just biked around a bit in the central zone, overheated, and went home.

Look ma, one hand! Taking this picture was easily the most risky thing I've done on this trip.. if I dropped her SLR camera, Janet would have definitely killed me. For those in the know, SLRs aren't really designed for one-handed use.