Blogs from Lopburi, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia

Lopburi is a town of small Khmer ruins and packs of confident monkeys, who can be seen as at home picking fleas off a friend about the old temples (that are separated into small parks), as they are strutting past mobile phone shops and then chasing foes up telephone poles. Some of the first monkeys we saw on leaving the train were thieving food from an open shop front. For us, this was novel seeing monkeys all about, hanging, even banditting and probably watching Netflix by evening. If you looked around you'd keep seeing more, say up on a roof or sat out on a car or swinging from the city's cable creepers. For those who lived here, I suspected the macaques (all 3,000 of them!) were a nuisance - of seeing familiar faces about the ... read more

Day 1 : Febuary 20th 2013 , 05.45 Manchester Airport for the long flight to Bangkok via Abu Dhabi . looking forward to seeing Noppharat at the airport , for 3 weeks travelling taking in our home in Tha Wung province , Lopburi . The madness that is Bangkok , Patong beach Phuket ,Koh Larn and many places along the way .... read more

Taking advantage of the long weekend here in Thailand because of what I think they call Monk's Day (Wan Phra), I made the train journey up north deep into central Thailand, to the ancient second capital of Lopburi. Nine famous temples bear witness to Lopburi's historical signifance as King Narai's preferred place of residence in the 17th century when the ancient capital of Atutthaya was still the seat of power. Today Lopburi is a sleepy town where at times the crab-eating macaques seem to even outnumber the people. It's considered slightly off the tourist trail, or at least certainly so compared to its more illustrious ancient sibling Ayutthaya, which I'd visited a couple of years ago. The Old City where I stayed was very compact, and all the sights were within walking distance. Smaller than Kanchanaburi, ... read more

Continuing the sports in Asia theme, and in a seasonal mood too (OK a bit late for Christmas, but we’re still in a holiday mood!) My very good friend Eddie Vernon just achieved a career best in a Christmas cycle race in Lam Narai in Thailand. He came 2nd out of the riders in the 50-54 age-group, narrowly missing first place at the finish line. What makes this a great achievement is that Eddie has just recovered from a severely fractured leg which occurred during a training ride iin Laos. This part of the world is probably not the friendliest environment to road race a bicycle. It can be fiendishly hot and humid - but then again we don't have the freezing cold damp weather that cyclists in north America and Europe have to suffer. Eddie ... read more

After a bad break up and a bad choice in my university degree subjects I decided I needed a break. I needed to get away for a few months or perhaps a years and turn my frantic and haphazard lifestyle into something positive and worthwhile. I few days later I heard from one of my friends talking about becoming a teachers in Asia. My sister travelled to Thailand two years ago so I thought maybe give Thailand a shot. I went to a local travel agent looked at some options, booked a ticked and went home to pack. Fast forward a few days later and I was on my way for a new adventure and after a bumpy, but boring flight I arrived in Bangkok international airport. I was met by a very friendly Thai man ... read more