Monkeyburi

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Fresh of the third bus trip we head for our intended hotel, the Lopburi Asia Hotel. This is a Chinese-run hotel (as are very many in Thailand) about 10 minutes walk from where we have been dropped off. Asking for directions a couple of times, we find it with no difficulty. We decided to treat ourselves to air-con (shock ! horror !) as cities here tend to be a bit muggy. The room is quite simple but perfectly nice. No specimens of Periplanata americana to be seen - yet. Lopburi Asia Hotel it is, then.

We head out for an exploratory walk around the centre of Lopburi. Within a few turns we find ancient temples and buildings nestled between modern buildings. It's quite a bizarre sight, seeing traffic scoot about around a six hundred year-old temple !

However the most striking thing about Lopburi is that the entire town is crawling with monkeys. Indeed Lopburi often goes by the sobriquet of Meuang Ling or "Monkey City". Hundred of them are sitting on telephone poles, shop awnings, on the pavement. Many are mothers cluthing adorable-looking babies. The monkeys are definitely a bit of a nuisance but Buddhism and culling animals don't go hand-in-hand, so the locals have learnt to live with them. Alex and I are gobsmacked - monkeys run over parked cars, essentially everywhere you lay your eyes on there is a monkey. Apparently there are several enemy factions of monkeys in Lopburi and the fights can get quite nasty. The little critters are fed twice a day (10am and 4pm) to keep them from attacking residents and visitors, but a shopkeeper (whose shop has about 20 monkeys running amok in it) advises us to be careful of our possessions.

Sure enough, barely a minute later, Alex and I fall victim to an attempted mugging. By a monkey. The thing follows us innocently enough before lunging at the water bottle Alex is carrying. She manages to jerk it away in time and I give the monkey a scowl. It slinks away, thwarted. Eek ! We had better watch our camera !

Soon enough it's dinner time and we indulge in some delicious street food...Will be back with details of Lopburi once we have seen a few sights tomorrow. Hopefully I won't be stalked by a monkey on my way back to the hotel !

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Photos

Monkeys, monkeys, everywhere
The streets around the railway station are monkey central...

Mucho monkeys
The place is crawling with them !

Identity Parade
The mugger, caught on camera seconds before committing his crime.He's the one sitting on the pavement edge above the white stripe, at the back. Cheeky monkey.

Old and New
A typical Lopburi scene.

Neung, sorng, saam, sii
"One, two, three, four". The fit of Lopburi do afternoon aerobics to the sound of thumping techno music.

Comments

[Maman et Papa]

Arrival in Lopburi
It is 20h58 in Farnham and we just read your last journal. Wow!. Looking forward to the details of your dinner menus in the streets!. We think Bill Bryson has competition. Cannot wait for next instalments and photos!. Lots of love and kisses.