1st Birthday

We have now arrived in Sukhothai, where we also celebrated Merle's first birthday (unbelievable, it's already been 1 year!). The train ride to Phitsanulok went better than expected, Merle quickly made friends and surrogate grandmas again. The bus ride to Sukhothai the next day fortunately only took 1.5 hours (it was a really old bus and the doors/windows weren't even closed), and Merle was entertained by fellow travelers until she got tired and fell asleep. Then we continued on an adventurous TukTuk ride to Old Sukhothai. Yesterday we explored the old temple ruins on foot; and today we rented bicycles, which we all enjoyed - and Merle now understands the purpose of wearing a bicycle helmet and suddenly likes to wear it.

In addition, Merle has already gotten used to the people and has become more open - she even allows herself to be picked up and carried around now (which the Thais love to do).

And sometimes it's really funny in restaurants: you order something, and either the Thais try to talk you out of it, or they just smile sweetly, say nothing and secretly go shopping - we have often seen the staff coming in with the ingredients for our dish at the door :). You then have to wait a bit longer, but it's worth it, the food is very tasty!

Tomorrow we have another travel day ahead of us, we continue to Lampang.