Blogs from Lopburi, Central Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 2

If you've ever visited the Angkor ruins outside of Siem Reap, then you'll recognize the ruins at Prang Sam Yod. This massive stone santuary was founded in the 13th century by the Khymer King Jayavarman Vll, the ruler who built many of Angkor Wat's most famous temples and palaces. Like a lot of the temples at Angkor, Prang Sam Yod was originally a Hindu temple with the three stone steeples or prangs representing the Hindu trinity of Brahma, Visnu, and Silva. The Thais later converted it to a Buddhist temple. An added attraction to this place is the numerous monkeys which run all over the ruins which is why the place is referred to as the Lopburi Monkey Temple. There were well over a hundred of the creatures when we visited the ruins. They also have ... read more

We decided to head to the "buri's". First we got the train to Lopburi - again ridiculously cheap; this is home to hundreds if not thousands of macaques. They are everywhere! It took us a while to spot one - which Craig spotted the first, then you couldn't walk a few feet without spotting loads. They are climbing on the buildings, on the cables above your head and on top of cars! You cant eat or drink on the street or they will take it from you..they are very greedy! Some of the locals have big sticks or catapults to keep the nasty ones away! We only spent one day there, as its a small place with not much to do. We visited a few Wat (temples) including the monkey temple. You can buy fruit and ... read more

Arrived in Bangkok fine, met Kim at the airport, spent 2 days in Bangkok and it was actually cool! Well cooler than INdia! Saw the grand palace, lots of temples including a 45m buddha, reclining buddha, emerald buddha (he was blue). Saw snake farm and how they got the venom out and then got taken to loads of random places trying to get us to buy stuff including jewellry, tailors (wanted Russ to buy numerous suits ha ha !! and they didnt understand what casual meant) Took a trip to see the floating markets full of tourist tat but good to see how they sell stuff from the boats. Then saw handy craft place, world war 2 museum full of dusty tat and a bridge which the Americans bombed. A tiger temple where we got to ... read more

My journey to Lopburi went very smoothly. At Auytthaya station I asked someone which platform I should be on for the Lopburi train and she said "this one". It was only a few minutes later that I realised that there was, in fact, only the one platform! To get to trains going in other directions you had to walk across the rails. The Lopburi train wasn't due to arrive until 4pm but got to Ayutthaya a quarter of an hour early. I would never had realised that this was the train I needed but fortunately the girl I'd asked earlier told me that this was the Lopburi train. It was quite crowded but I managed to get a seat. The train had been early at Ayutthaya but was late at Lopburi, arriving at almost half past ... read more

I’m almost there… I can see the flags waving me on at the finish line. The final week of training is coming to an end and I couldn’t be happier. The Competency test was taken today and the language this past Saturday. I actually passed and can now ask for directions to the bathroom! These have truly been the toughest two months I’ve experienced in years and if I had to do it over, I would think long and hard. There have been some very bright and beautiful spots on the horizon and those are what have kept me motivated. You will see them here in the faces of some of the people I’ve come to love. Jakkit and his family have so little when it comes to material wealth yet they share every meal with ... read more