1278: it was the Golden Age, the "Dawn of Happiness". At least in Thailand. That was the year that Sukothai, the first truly free Thai state, threw off the shackles of Khmer rule and founded a kingdom which Thais today look back on as their political and national beginnings. Today's Thai citizens associate with Sukothai all of the emotions and nationalistic fervor that Americans associate with the Boston Tea Party, or the French with the storming of the Bastille. The ruins of ancient Sukothai are perhaps most beautiful at sunset and sunrise; the site takes on a mystique in the twilight that can help transport visitors back in history...