Goerwitz

Pannavit (Benz) and Jariya by the old-city ruins at Sukhotai.

If you ask Thais, they will tell you that Sukhotai was the first great capital of their country (the second being Ayyuthaya being the third and Bangkok). You will hear this also in official literature and at festivals, e.g., in Loi Krathong celebrations at Sukhotai.

This is a fun picture of the Thai family who invited us to their home then took us through some of the major sights around Chiang Mail, Lampang, and Sukhothai.

This picture was taken in the Phetchabun Mountains. The young guy in the middle, Pannavit (all Thais have nicknames, by the way, and his is "Benz"), lived with us in the US for ten months.

Bang Pa-In Palace was originally built in the Ayutthaya era in Thai history, but was built into what we see here by the famed king Rama V, who had a taste not only for native Thai, but also for European, architecture.