Monkeying around Lopburi

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In order to see the infamous "monkey town" of Lopburi, we had to go a bit out of our way and take a bus from Kanchanaburi to Suphinburi, which was a public regular bus (meaning no A/C and seats like on a school bus), definitely not the tourist trail. Then from there we hopped on a bus to Lopburi, this one was probably about 70 years old, so was the driver though, which made it a slow ride. Fortunately there was only about 6 other people on the bus so we were able to switch sides of the bus (from sunny to shady) as needed. Despite our description, the ride wasn't that bad, we had all the windows open and air coming up through the holes rusted in the floor for maximum ventilation. For entertainment, we played peekaboo with a little boy sitting in front of us who seemed to be very amused by us whiteys.

When we reached town, we actually drove through the old part of the city, which is where we wanted to go, but not knowing for sure where we were, we stayed on to the end of the ride which took us to the bus station in the new part of the city, several kilometers away. So then we caught a local sawngtheuw (pickup truck with bench seats in the bed) back the way we came and ended up in the heart of monkey town. Lopburi is the home of several ancient ruins, but is more known for it's large population of mokeys that live in main part of the old city, which is probably also the reason why there's a "new" city. In the first 2 minutes, as we were standing on the corner getting oriented, a monkey suddenly came out of nowhere and violently grabbed at our bag of goodies that we were carrying. Acting fast, I screamed at the monkey and ripped it away with all my might, saving our precious cookies and peanuts. Afterward, the monkey just sat there staring at us, waiting for the right moment to attack again. We quickly moved onto the other side of the street where there were more people around, who were not being attacked by the monkeys that seemed to be content swinging on the power lines overhead.

We found the tourist office and got our map, although everything of interest was within a two block radius, and found a reasonable hotel. Like most Thai cities, they had the usual evening group jazzercise in the public park, as well as the footy volleyball (can't remember the name of it).

Today we got up and hit the sites (the ruins) early to try to beat the heat and also to try to get a train to Chiang Mai. Oh and we had scoped out a donut shop for breakfast but it didn't open till 9 which of course we didn't realize until 8 when we showed up at the door. Have you ever heard of a donut shop that isn't open first thing in the morning? Crazy! But then again we're in thailand, breads and pastries aren't a big thing (or very good) here, they mostly like to have soup for breakfast. The ruins were pretty cool, but nothing special compared to what we've seen elsewhere.

The monkeys on the otherhand, were very entertaining. Apparently at the one of the ruins they give you a monkey beating stick when you pay your entry fee because the monkeys there are particularly forward. We didn't pay to get in because we could see those ruins and the monkeys just as well from the fence around it and at the gate. The monkeys really are everywhere, in all shapes, sizes, and ages. They play on the wires, buildings, and street signs like it's a big jungle gym. As we came around the corner, we realized we found the designated monkey bathing and feeding area, the same place we were attacked yesterday. The city actually provides bathing barrels and puts loads of food out for the monkeys a couple times a day so that they don't attack people and get into the restaurants' food and stuff. We had fun watching them play and fight over food for a while.

We had hoped to catch a train to Chiang Mai early in the day but the next one turned out to be a night train leaving around 8:15 PM. We booked a 2nd class sleeper and then spent the rest of the day killing time by doing internet and sitting in the park watching people use the colorful exercise contraptions placed around the park, we even tried them out ourselves, but I don't think we got much exercise.

March 25th:
The train was pretty nice. We got an upper and a lower bunk which converts to a table and benches for breakfast. The beds were surprisingly comfortable and even had clean sheets, blankets and decent pillows, actually better than most of the guesthouses we've stayed in. In the morning they woke us up bright and early for breakfast of eggs, sausage (aka hot dog), and toast, which we had pre-ordered the night before. Got into Chiang Mai around 8 AM.

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Photos

Feeding and bathing...
They city actually feed the monkeys to keep them off of people's backs, not that it stopped one from trying to steal our sack of goodies the minute we stepped foot in the old city.