Monkeys!

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Lopburi
April 27th 2009

Published: April 27th 2009

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 five instead of five o'clock.

At the station there were lots of trishaws waiting - the bicycle driven rickshaw things. I showed my hotel reservation to one and he said he would take me there for 50B. I thought it must be quite near. But the journey went on and on along a straight wide road out of the centre of town. There was a big hump backed bridge over a broad river and the driver had to get out and push. I worked out later from my map that the journey from the station was about 5km. In the end I paid the driver 100B, I think he deserved at least that much - he was hauling not just me but my backpack and daypack too which completely filled the small trishaw.

I had booked into a hotel this time, the Lopburi Inn, and it was very nice. The only trouble was, as I mentioned, that it was 4 or 5 kilometres away from the old part of town where all the sights - and monkeys - are.

By the time I'd showered and changed it was 7 o'clock and I came down to get something to eat. I took a look at the hotel restaurant, but it appeared to be closed so I went outside to look for taxis. I couldn't find any but there were lots of wooden monkeys lining the street outside. At first glance (remember it was dark by now) they looked like actual people sitting on benches on the road side but when you got closer you could see they were cleverly carved and painted monkey statues, dressed in human clothes.

I started to walk down the long, straight road that I knew led to town. I didn't fancy an eight or ten kilometre round trip walk, though. I thought I'd probably see a taxi soon or a restaurant by the side of the road.

I didn't see either, but the walk was enjoyable and I walked across the hump backed bridge, which had lovely views of the river (presumably the Lopburi river?) at night. The Lopburi is one of the rivers that ring Ayutthaya. I walked past the Lopburi zoo - I wonder if they bother to keep monkeys there - and carried on walking up to the large roundabout that I knew was just over half way to the old town. I was thinking of turning back to the hotel but as I circled around the roundabout I saw a 7-11 store. These had been everywhere in Bangkok and Ayutthaya but this was the first I'd seen in Lopburi.

Bangkok also had quite a few Tescos. In England we have Tesco Locals but there they had Tesco Lotus. When I was in the middle of the market in Ayutthaya, in the bit that seemed most Thai and most genuinely traditional, I saw cardboard boxes labelled "Tesco Lotus" showing where some of the produce came from!

I bought some water, some green tea and bottle of "Singha Light" beer. I wasn't sure if the Light meant less alcohol or fewer calories. To eat I bought a couple of apples, some sliced mango and a packet of crisps. They have some wierd flavoured crisps here. Seaweed seems popular and there were a lot of seafood flaovour snacks. Most of them though I just didn't know what they were.

I walked back to the hotel, finishing the water along the way. Once back I had a nice meal of the fruit and green tea, leaving the beer and crisps for later and went to sleep. This time I slept well.

I've been sleeping on top of the beds with no sheets or bedclothes above me since I've been in Thailand. I have no idea if I should be putting up a mosquito net, but I don't seem to have been bitten badly yet.

I slept quite late - till about 9 o'clock - and went down to breakfast. I had done some washing of clothes in Ayutthaya but took advantage of the hotel's laundry service to leave a load of tops and pants and handkies in the laudry bag. I hope they're ready for when I leave tomorrow!

This time I asked at reception where I could get a taxi into town and the girl there indicated a place outside the hotel to the left to me. I went there, first taking the opportunity to observe the monkey statues in the light of day.

I saw no taxis, so started to walk down that road again, and this time I carried on right into the old town. You know when you've got there - there's a big sign that says "Beware - Monkey Zone". And suddenly there they are, hundreds and hundreds of them. They mostly congregate around two ruined wats - San Phra Kan and Prang Sam Yot, which is the famous one with three linked Khmer towers. The reason for this was fairly obvious - there were great piles of bananas dumped in the temple grounds. It must have been like monkey heaven, lots of free food. In addition, when they charged admission to the temples you could pay a few baht more to get dried seeds and sweets to feed the monkies with.

I bought some and wasn't really sure if the monkies would like the sweets - brightly coloured and in plastic wrapping. But I was disabused of my doubts when, before I could open the bag, a monky jumped up and tore it from my grasp. opening it with ease and devouring some of the contents before leaving the rest for its mates.

I was more careful in distributing the dried seeds. The monkeys will actually come to your hands and take it, never minding if they drop a little if they get at least some.

Several of the monkies were nursing mothers. At first I thought they were carrying their babies in pouches like kangaroos but what it was was that the baby monkies cling to their mothers as they suck milk and hang on tight as their mums move agily on all four legs.

The odd thing was that although there were vast troupes of monkeys in the temples' grounds there was not one single monkey inside the temple, where you can walk and look around. They clung to the grilled windows outside watching the human tourists within, but didn't come in. I have no idea why this was. Just chance? Do the monkeys know that if they dare to go in they'll be beaten? Was there some chemical smell abhorrent to monkeys inside? Or do the monkeys naturally respect the temple?

I walked around the old city, visiting the Wat Sao Thong Thong, Wat Indra and the Chao Phraya Wichayen - a ruined palace built in western style for the French ambassaor in the seventeenth century - before breaking off for an ice cream and coffee. Lopburi is supposedly famous for its ice cream parlours, but this was the first I'd seen. They served Walls Ice Cream!

I found an interesting shrine near the Central Market, that was not referred to in my guidebook. It was the Shrine of the Arrow and marked the place where a pillar, representing the centre of the city was erected.

The story is that after the events of the Ramayana, when Ravan had been defeated and Sita restored to Ram, Ram rewarded Hanuman, the monkey king who had helped him so much with his supreme loyalty and courage by making him governor of city to be founded wherever an arrow shot from Ram's great bow fell to earth. The arrow was fired from Ram's own city of Ayodha = Ayutthaya and came down where this shrine now stands in Lopburi. This is why Lopburi is the city of monkeys - it was founded by Hanuman!

I have always loved the story of Hanuman since I first read how he got all the monkeys to build a bridge across the sea to Lanka, Ravan's great fortress, when I was a child. I had always imagined that events took place in India - but it seems that the Thais think that some at least happened in Thailand!

I hadn't seen any internet places, till I came across this one. Lopburi seems less westernised than Bangkok and Ayutthaya and nearly all the signs and shop names are in Thai and not English. There do seem to be loads of motorbikes and cycle repair shops, however.

I have now been in Thailand for a week. Tomorrow morning I'll be moving on to Sukhothai

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