I am queen of the road!!!

Well, maybe just a 100 m stretch of flat paved road with no traffic, but still... We rented another motobike in Sukothai to get around the temples there, and Darren gave me a driving lesson. I didn't get above second gear, and I did almost run through a fence and into a pasture, but all in all it wasn't so bad. The almost running off the road part is because someone brilliantly designed these things so that the gas and brake are on the same handlebar, so when I went to pull the break, I didn't do such a good job and pulled the gas instead. But I managed to calmly get myself stopped, switched into neutral, and backed away from the side of the road. Not too bad for a first lesson. It's going to come in handy in Laos if I can get comfortable driving one of those because it gives you so much more freedom to get away from other travelers. We took a nice little side road through a village along the canal, and I love the looks on people's faces when they realize we're foreigners. They get so excited to see us here and give us great big grins.

We're in Ayutthaya today, going to rent bicycles and cycle around to see the temple ruins here. Today is the king's birthday too, so there's all sorts of pomp and circumstance around the whole country. There's going to be a great big street party right around the corner from our guesthouse with fireworks and everything, so we're going to whoop it up with the locals tonight ;) Wish the whole country celebrated MY birthday ;)