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Published: June 28th 2006
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Lopburi Morning Market
No maengdah at this stall... Phew ! Our second (and last) day in Lopburi draws to a close. It's been a real scorcher today, and walking round the old part of the city under the blazing Sun was quite a challenge. Still, we managed to take in a good measure of the atmosphere of Lopburi.
The guidebook is quite right. The close juxtaposition of old and new here is quite amazing. In Angkor, for example, the ruins are located some distance away from the closest town Siem Reap, but here the very ancient and the very modern are squeezed together. Strangely enough, this juxtaposition works very well, lending a quiet charm to Lopburi.
We began our day at the fresh produce market or
Dtalaat Sot. This was even more impressive than Kanchanaburi's, aided by the fact that we got there at 8am (it's right opposite our hotel). It was extremely busy, and was at times even more graphic than the last market ! Aside from the fruit, vegetables, meat and fish on display, Lopburi's market offered a special delicacy - boiled
maengdah. If you're not squeamish, check the link below :
Picture of maengdah These lovely little creatures are actually not cockraches, they are
Phra Narai Raachaniwet
A ruined reception hall for foreign dignitaries, including the Chevalier de somethingorother representing the Court of Versailles ! Lethocerus indicus or Giant Water Bugs. Which made us feel a whole lot better...They are a delicacy especially in North-Eastern Thailand, where they thrive in dry paddy fields. There are highly regarded and thus quite expensive (at 5B each). According to the website where I found the picture, they are delicious and taste quite nutty. I'll take the author's word for it. I was familiar with what they were as my UCL Thai teacher Uan had told the class about it, as well as with the Thai word. The lady at the stall nearly fell over when I pointed at the platter and said, scrunching my face up, "
maengdah!". We skipped the creepy crawlies, and spent a good half hour poking about the market. A real hive of activity.
We then cross the street to visit
Phar Narai Raachaniwet, and old palace built by king Narai around the 17th Century. We commissioned French as well as Thai architects to design the palace, so the building is a very interesting blend of East and West. The grounds of the palace, surrounded by very high walls, are also home to a variety of ruined brick and stone structures from the same
Phra Narai Raachaniwet - 2
Impressive gate separating two parts of the palace complex. period. Why the palace survived intact and these didn't I'm not quite sure...The palace houses an interesting collection of artifacts and sculpture from the various periods of Lopburi's history. English labelling was minimal, and Thai explanations a bit too technical, so we made do just by looking. A annexe building housed a collection of documents relating to Thailand's (then called Siam, not Thailand) diplomatic relations with other countries around the 17th Century. France, Iran, Japan, China...I was very surprised to find out the French Royal Court and Siam had already developed extensive relationships and treaties by that time.
This took us through to noon or so, and we lunched at a little place just round the corner. The food was nothing to write home about (hence I won't), but this particular little restaurant in a corner of provincial Thailand was home to one of the worst-translated Thaiglish menus I've ever seen. It was hilarious in a very sad kind of way. Have a look at the photo...The "special food" made me shiver (if you know the "League of Gentlemen" you'll know exactly what I mean...as for the "Chicken Fire Ford" and "Fish Ruby in Two Heart", I can't even
Parlez-vous Thaiglish ?
Fish ruby in two heart - sounds like an ideal Valentine's Day dish to me. Maybe not. guess. Dancing Prawns sound quite entertaining though !
We spent the afternoon milling about Lopburi (hardly any monkeys to be seen though - they had obviously retreated to some hill station to avoid the heat...) finding ruined or semi-ruined ancient buildings on most streets. In the afternoon we visited a sprawling Khmer-style temple 20 feet across the road from the railway station - yet another new-and-old. It went by the name of
Wat Prasrirattanamahathat. I wanted to post a photo of this mouthful but I couldn't get the whole name to fit in the frame ! It was quite impressive and reminiscent of Angkor Wat, but was made quite eerie and spooky by the present of literally dozens of dismembered pigeons everywhere...I asked the lady at the ticket booth why this was - were the monkeys assassinating the pigeons ? Birds of prey ? Her answer was that were suffering some kind of disease...Unfortunately my Thai did not stretch to asking "Why are they in lots of little pieces then ?" Some disease !
After a hour or so cooling off in our nice cold room, we headed out for a drink and then dinner. The centre of
Hodgepodge
A Buddhist "prang" complete with city bus and electricity cables. Lopburi in one picture. Lopburi had been taken over by a sprawling evening/night market. Everything was represented : food, drink, clothes, jewellery, lots of yellow commemorative T-shirts for the King's Jubilee...It was fun to watch the young and old of Lopburi have fun. For dinner we went back to the night food market along the railway line. I managed to take some quite interesting pictures of this...The atmosphere was even busier than yesterday. Smoke rose into the night sky laden with delicious smells. Mopeds buzzed around, orders were called out at tops of voices, children shrieked with laughter as they played by the side of the tracks. It was quite wonderful - and no other
farangs in sight...There were obviously missing out !
Tomorrow morning we early birds will be catching the 7.07 worm directly to the Airport. This allows us to avoid the capital and make our 11.30am flight from Bangkok to Luang Phabang. Another day, another country. I have briefly visited Laos (very briefly) but Alex has not and we are both looking forward to this stage in the trip immensely. I am hoping for clear weather as we land as the approach to Luang Phabang is supposed to be spectacular.
Hopefully we'll have some photos from the plane for you in a couple of days.
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