Wats and Monkeys! Oh My!

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Lopburi Monkey Madness

Lopburi Monkey Madness *** Check out the video on the left beside our picture. Just click on it and it should come up in another window. You may have to wait a little while for it to load. And you might have to load some software if it promts you do so. CAN YOU COUNT THE MONKEYS?***

LINDSAY

Once we left the islands, we boarded a boat to Chumphun and then a night train to Ayuthaya. We had booked an air conditioned 2nd class sleeper car because it was only a little more expensive than the fan one that was so hot the last time. This time however, we got an sir con car with a broken air system and as it was meant to have AC the windows were screwed shut and half the fans didn't even work. It was much hotter in the train than it even was outside. The sweat was pouring off all the tourists in the train and people were stripping down to as little as they could.

It took about an hour or so for them to get the (most of) the fans working again and unscrew each window so that they could open a crack. My god was it an operation! It got a little better but it was really hard to sleep nonetheless.

We got to Ayuthaya in the morning and headed straight to the guesthouse to shower and rest and basically did nothing but wander about for 2 days.

After a long mission to try to burn James' photos on to DVD (which was easy in Bangkok but impossible everywhere else apparently) we decided we had to do something in Ayuthaya that did not include a mall or computer. So off we went to see some ruins and wats.

Ayuthaya is the old capital of Thailand and it is full of Ruins! There are ruins in the middle of modern intersections, ruins touching the side of new buildings, ruins that are almost a part of new wats... Most are a red stone with Buddha's all over the place. After a while you start to think that once you have seen one ruin and one wat, that you have basically seen them all. But we found out that this is not true.

We wanted to see a lot of things fast in Ayuthaya as we didn't have a lot of time so we chartered ourselves a long-tail boat trip. It was 3 hours and we would be taken to 4 places. It was just us and a sort of crusty but helpful older woman as our driver. We saw some old red coloured ruins with a lot of broken buddha images and statues, one working wat with a giant buddha statue and some white stone ruins that had bright shining Buddha statues all the way around (and a room full of bats). We saw a Chinese Buddhist Temple with the largest Buddha in the country and found out that Chinese Buddhism is the most colourful and fragrant of the form of Buddhism out there. Their temples are filledwith candles, blinking lights, incense, sounds of bells rung by worshippers, Monks on hand to pray with you... It is perhaps in a way, what Catholicism is to Christianity.

The boat ride was a great chance to just sit back and take it all in. Though it was a nice way to see things it also made one very aware of how much the people rely on these river systems... and also how polluted they are. People fish and bath in these rivers everyday. They use the water in cooking, to drink, to water their gardens... and yet it is also the place where everything gets dumped. The sewage, garbage, boat fuel... I cannot believe the amount of garbage that is just thrown everywhere.

It's not that we are much better... Halifax harbour is where Halifax dumps it's raw sewage as one example. But it seems more so here. There are more people in smaller areas and they are so reliant on theses waterways. It is kind of frightening. And the smell of sewage is at times overwhelming.

There is an elephant place nearby where you can take care of elephants for a few days if you like. Bathe, feed, ride, get to do tricks... We went to check it out even though we don't think we have time to do it... And while James wants to do it very badly, I'm more interested in looking than touching. We got to watch people take the elephants to bathe in the river. It was very cool.

We are having trouble getting in touch with the Gibbon experience. This is the place where we are going to live in the treehouses and trek around. If this falls through, maybe the elephant thing could take it's place.

Today we caught the train to Lopburi, a town known for it's overabundance of mischievous monkeys. We walked around all morning without seeing one and were getting very worried that our whole reason for coming here was not going to show up. BUT THEN!!!

We were heading to yet another set of ruins when all of a sudden there was a whole pack of Monkeys on the other side of the road. They were dodging cars and running up phone polls... Then we looked up and they were on the buildings and polls ight above us, and down the lane, and up the street... They were everywhere.

We noticed the wat was overrun with them and headed over, where we were handed some bags of sunflower seeds and a bamboo stick. I am immediately attacked by two monkeys. The smaller one sits on my arm and opens one of the bags and starts pigging out. The second, bigger one, gets a hold of my hand and the other bag and begins to try to bite it open and pull it away... as I have only so many hands, and James is laughing and taking pictures instead of using the stick to get rid of him, I had to relinquish the bag to the big monkey and enjoy my new little friend on the other arm.

It looked like a lot of monkeys as we were coming up to the ruins but it was nothing compared to what there actually was. There were moneys in every crevice, in every corner all over the building. They were running around fighing with each other, napping, climbing, pulling bugs off little ones and eating them, nursing babies, playing in puddles, jumping on people, lounging about... It was incredible. They seemed to stay within a one block radius of the ruins even though they have total freedom to run wild everywhere (except maybe that shop owners would likely be wacking them with bamboo sticks).

This was until the sun started to go down and the day started to cool off... then it became monkey pandemonium! They were everywhere, running about town climbing every building in sight, trees, anything they could find. We watched one steal a bag with a CD and headphones out of a bicycle basket. He then threw away the headphones and proceeded to look at himself in the CD. We stopped to take pictures and one started hissing and following James. One almost peed on my head from a cable above. Dogs were barking and chasing them. They were playing around, hopping about, making tons of noise... They were seriously mischievious little devils. I suppose the days of napping in the heat gives them tons of energy for when the sun goes down. It was very cool and very surreal.

James tried to getone off this bag we brought with the bamboo stick but the monkey just climbed on. I think they have learned that tourists with bamboo sticks will rarely hit a monkey with it. The locals who have to deal with them everyday I am sure do it all the time... they can be persistant little menaces when they want to be and I can imagine that after a while the novelty wears off.

We leave Lopburi on a night train tonight and arrive in Chiang Mai tomorrow. There has been some problems there with forest and crop fires and smoke but some people that were just up there informed us that it is all dissipating now.

+40 almost everyday... I hope you guys are out of the late winter storms over there at home.

JAMES

On our ferry ride from Koh Tao to Chumphon we got to watch that dumb movie Scorcese made last year with the thoroughly implausible plot that he won an Oscar for. Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Casino, Taxi Driver... no Oscars. A remake of Hong Kong action film that's even (far) less plausible than its predecessor and... voila! But, I digress.

I had found out while on Koh Tao that we were going to have some problems get to our noon train on time in Chumphon. Seems that the ferry company's website is a tad optimistic about the ferry's arrival times. According to the website we'd have an hour and a bit in Chumphon to get from the pier to the train station and board our train. According to reality we probably wouldn't even dock in Chumphon before our noon train left. I brought this matter to the attention of the people running the resort and they very kindly spent an afternoon on the phone trying to get us a refund for the train tickets we'd already paid for and also to try and find us two sleeper berths on another train at such short notice. When they finally found us two berths together they were for departure a day later, which suited us fine... and what was more, they were on an airconditioned car, whereas our old tickets had been on a hot fan car like the one we'd sweltered through on our way south from Bangkok. AirCon! We were excited!

The ferry ride to Chumphon got interesting as we entered a waterway and approached the town. Hundred of squid fishing boats were moored along the waterway for the day. We'd seen this boats fishing for squid at night in the distance from both of the beaches we'd stayed at, but had yet to really see one up close. They use long arms that swing our over the water with lights to attract the squids.

We got to the Chumphon train station with a few hours spare before our train was to leave so we checked our big packs and headed into town to check things out. We thought that perhaps we'd find an internet cafe and some dinner. After walking into town a ways we came across a travel agency/guesthouse/internet cafe that appeared to be in the final stages of construction. I asked the relaxing Thai threesome inside where I might find an internet cafe that was open. They simply turned their computer on for us let us use it for free. They explained that their business would be open soon and one of the men told me about his trip to Vancouver 7 years ago. It's not too often you get to talk to a Thai person who has been to Canada. He told be that he thought that Vancouver was beautiful and remembered specifically how wide the streets were. He also told me that is was only around plus fifteen degrees Celsius while he was there and that he thought he was going to freeze to death.

Slightly further up the same street we found restaurant that had an extensive Italian menu and baked all of it's own bread daily. Sounded good to us as I had a bit of an upset stomach and headache that day and wasn't feeling up to Thai food anyway. Lindsay got some Bolognese that wasn't sweet like jam, which is a bit of a feat here.

Back at the train station we found ourselves among a large group of confused tourists waiting on the platform with tickets in our hands. Seems we all had tickets for car 19 on the 9pm train. Well, the only train to be seen was across one set of tracks, pointing the wrong way, and had only one car attached to the engine. After conflicting information from the Thai Railway employees we found out that indeed this lone car was our car 19, so we followed some other confused foreigners and boarded. Wow was it hot in that car. Being an air-conditioned car, the windows don't open and I supposed that it had been sitting there baking in the sun all day until we got aboard. We found out beds above a German family and laid like leeches baking on a dock waiting for the train to start moving and aircon to turn on. Then I heard from further down the car... rumblings that the A/C wasn't working...wasn't going to work...I laid motionless in my upper berth, bathing in a pool of my own sweat wondering if I could take 10 hours in sauna overnight to Bangkok. After nearly an hour some railway workers came through the car and actually unscrewed all the windows so we didn't die of heat exhaustion...and we were informed that we'd be refunded 150 baht per ticket for the inconvenience. It didn't seem like a lot considering that we'd paid 900 baht each for the air-conditioned car. I was feeling precariously close to becoming one of those idiot tourists who rant at Thai working in language he doesn't understand with issues he doesn't give a damn about all because my precious sense of acceptable service had been upset. Luckily there was an idiot down the way who beat me to the punch and was being such a douche-bag that I immediately wanted to be pleasant with the Thais to make up for him. With the windows open, the train moving and night falling, the temperature became bearable (or at least no longer dangerous) and I fell asleep on my wet pillow.

We got to Bangkok with only minutes to run from our night train to our morning train. This was only to be an hour and a half ride to Ayutthaya so we were booked in 3rd class seats. This was more like riding the bus on a train, except that buses don't usually stop for half an hour multiple times along the way. The ride took over two and a half hours and we arrived in Ayutthaya around 10:30am.

After trying to book our next set of tickets north to Chiang Mai on yet another fabulous air-conditioned sleeper car (and having to settle for leaving a day later than planned due to train availability), I tried calling our Ayutthaya guesthouse to be picked up from the train station. After two phone calls where I could hear nothing but expected that the person on the other end could hear me just fine, I gave up and we jumped into an Ayutthaya tuk tuk, which are larger than their Bangkok counterparts, like little three-wheeled pick-up trucks.

Once settled in our new guesthouse, we decided that we should find Lindsay a new book to read as she'd finished her last one on the beach. We inquired with the family that running the guesthouse and after deliberated with each other for quite some time, they informed us that we should go to Robinson's. Sounded good to us. They told us that it was rather far though and that it would be an expensive tuk tuk ride. The owner's daughter and a friend led us out onto the main road, flagged down a bus, talked briefly to the buses ticket inspector and then ushered us on. We paid our seven baht each and rode... and rode... and rode... We were on the freeway. It seemed we were on our way back to Bangkok. Finally we pulled off the freeway and down a few streets and then there it was... A giant mall, and attached to it - Robinson's!!! If anything it can be said that we are conducting a very thorough investigation of Thai shopping malls.

Once inside the Robinson's I found sneakers of a Thai brand that I really liked, so I bought them. Next we headed upstairs in search of the book section. Well, it's true that Robinson's has a large bookstore; however, none of those books are in English. We found it extremely humorous that we'd been sent on such a journey, the sole goal of which was to find Lindsay a new book, and now here we were at another Thai super-mall, in the middle of nowhere, and with no English books whatsoever to be found. So, we shopped.

We took a lovely boat trip around Ayutthaya that stopped at four Wats along the way. Ayutthaya was founded as the capital of the Siam kingdom in its location for its defensibility. At the point where three major rivers meet, Ayutthaya is surrounded by a natural moat. We motored along this in a little longtail boat, our middle-aged Thai driver a showing us a delightful mix of disinterest, hospitality and at times almost motherly care. We'd moor at some point near a sight of interest and she'd shoo us off her boat and exclaim, "twenty minute!" and we'd be on our way, sometimes wondering if we were now walking in the right direction to find our destination or not, and returning to find her asleep in the boat or washing her hair in the river. The Wats were all quite interesting, some still working Wats, some old ruins of 1000 year old shrines, and one a dazzlingly colorful Chinese Buddhist temple.

A few days in Ayutthaya had to be taken extremely slowly as I was feeling quite ill. I had a headache that caused each footstep I took to feel like a bat to the head, and anything I ate was going straight through me with a flatulent violence that one would expect only to see in a Ben Stiller or Chris Farley movie.

Subsequent was the fun of trying to get photos downloaded from my camera onto DVD. First there was the fun of finding a computer in town with a DVD burner… Then there was the adventure of trying to find blank DVD's… Then there was finding out that the drive on the computer that said DVD+-R Writer, was really only a CD writer with the wrong door put on the front of the computer box… Then there was the camera shop that started doing it…and the battery on my camera dying 75% of the way through burning the DVD (which to that point had taken 30 minutes…). Then we found out that the camera shop was going to charge me $30 Canadian to do it and being thrilled that my camera battery had died before that thievery could take place. Lastly was sitting up late at the computer at our guesthouse with my eyes half open and my intestines rumbling, burning my photos onto seven CD's on a Nero program with everything written in Thai.

We caught a morning train to Lopburi from Ayutthaya. The ride was only an hour long. We got out at Lopburi and were met with immediate heat and the ruins of a Wat right across from the train station. The 7-eleven was only half a block away, as usual in Thailand, and after spending some time looking at some really cute newborn puppies outside the Sev, we were off to find lunch. Luckily I'd come across a basic tourist map of Lopburi before our departure and it led us eventually to the local KFC after all other possible food options we'd found were ruled out immediately in consideration of my ongoing gastrointestinal issues. After our lunch and fun musings at the availability of corn sundaes at Thai KFC's, it was off to search for a restroom. One thing I know how to say very well in Thai is "Where is the toilet?", but in Lopburi that phrase was met only with shrugs and shaken heads or replies of "not here". It seems that outside of people's homes, there are NO toilets in Lopburi. We wandered about in the baking sun as the issue became direr. I found what looked to be a major tourist site on my little map and thought that there would have to be a bathroom there…but there was no toilet at the ruins of what had once been the Greek Ambassador to Siam's house. Then a toilet was spotted behind Chinese temple, but it was locked. I ventured into the temple and found an old man who beckoned me in eagerly and motioned that I was welcome to look around or take photos. It felt disrespectful to tell him that all we really wanted was to use his toilet, so I thanked him and took a couple of photos before asking where the toilet was. He kindly found his keys and went around to the back of the building to unlock the bathroom's gate. I stayed inside and took more photos of the temple while Lindsay finally got to pee.

Our main reason for stopping one day in Lopburi was the promise of wild monkeys roaming the streets like stray dogs. Through all our toilet and restaurant hunting we'd not seen a single monkey and were beginning to think that a day in Lopburi was the biggest bust ever when I spied something clambering down a telephone pole up ahead of us. Then I looked across the street and saw three monkeys hanging out under a payphone. As we neared Lopburi's major ancient temple remnants it became monkey mania. Seriously, there were frickin' monkeys everywhere. They were running across the road, climbing up and down telephone poles, on the roofs of shops and balconies of apartments… Everywhere monkeys! We entered the grounds of the temple ruins and while buying our tickets were also sold two bags of what looked to sunflower seeds and given a three foot bamboo stick for self-defense should it be necessary. I immediately handed the two bags to Lindsay so I could get my camera out before we proceeded. Within seconds Lindsay was playing tug-of-war with one of the larger monkeys for one of the bags of seeds which eventually the big monkey won. Before Lindsay could take a breath a smaller monkey climbed up her leg and onto her backpack after the other bag of seed. As Lindsay was laughing rather than screaming I went for my camera instead of the bamboo stick. These monkeys were already proving to be a riot. He just sat up there eating some seed, trying to steal her hair band, pulling lightly at her hair. We walked around the temple in awe at the number of monkeys and baking in the incredibly hot sun. Finally I could take the heat no longer and suggested we go into the temple where there would at least be some shade. The temple had barred doors on all sides to keep the monkeys out, so some would cling to the bars in hopes on being handed food. It was sort of like a reverse zoo - we were locked in small building looking at the wildlife that was all around us running free outside...a safari that wasn't going anywhere.


Later on, as evening fell and we were about to board a night train to Chiang Mai, a monkey ran by us on the sidewalk and as it passed a parked scooter, reached into the basket and absconded with a bag containing a newly bought CD and some headphones. We watched him hurry up a telephone pole with his booty and then sit on some telephone wires looking at himself in the mirrored reflection of the CD. Lopburi, what fun!!! Every city should have packs of wild, roving monkeys!

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Photos

Hot Train
The air conditioning is broken, the fan is not turning and the windows don't open...

Corn Sundae
Corn is a dessert here. You can get corn pie, corn ice cream, corn whatever. This was the corn sundae at the KFC in Lopburi.

Wat Chai Wattanaram
Two spires at the ruins of Wat Chai Wattanaram in Ayuthaya.

Half Head
This Buddha has lost his head!

Chedi at Wat Pananchoeng
Some more ruins.

Monk Folding Flower Petals
A monk folding petals at a functioning Wat in Ayuthaya.

Wall of Buddhas
Four long walls of Buddhas line this Wat in Ayuthaya. There was only one red Buddha... can you find it? This is one of the four Wats we visited on our boat tour.

Buddha Ruins
Two Buddhas left standing at one of the ruins we visited. These ones are in very good shape compared to many of the others.

Prayer at Chinese Wat
This room contained one of the largest Buddha statues in South East Asia. It was under construction so it was hard to see. Here are some people praying in front of it.

Candles and Incense
Candles and Incense burning in the main room at the Chinese Wat.

Chinese Wat (Temple)
Inside a smaller room in the Chinese Wat in Ayuthaya. There were many rooms and a large front hall that was packed. This was a quieter room.

Elephant
An elephant at the sanctuary. James has many more photos of elephants but in the cd burning process they got put on to a disk in raw format... too big for the internet. But this one is cute.

Ronald Macdonald doing the Wai
Wai is the traditional Thai greeting that shows respect. Even Ronald is not exempt.

A Pack of Monkeys
Here are a pack of monkeys running around the streets. Notice how the people seem completely unfazed.

Lindsay with Monkey on Her Head
Here is the monkey on Lindsay's head. He wanted some seeds and he was persistent.

Monkey Face
To get away from the constant barrage of monkeys, you could escape into the ruins that have barred doors to keep them out. Here is a little monkey face peering in.

Lounging Monkey
A monkey lounging at the front gate to the ruins.

Monkey on a Stick
Here is James after trying to stop a monkey from ripping open a bag I was holding. This was how scared the monkey was...

A Consentration of Monkeys
There were so many monkeys. The whole place was covered in monkeys much like this photo displays. Monkeys, Monkeys, MONKEYS!!!

Thieving Monkey
The Monkeys steal things from people in Lopburi. Apparently they particularly love shiny things. Here is a monkey who stole a cd from a bicycle basket right in front of us.

Comments

[Sue]

Monkees !
What till your brothers get a load of the Monkeys James ! We'll read it tonight

[Aunt jude]

Just read your blog weather sounds wonderfull I guess summer is here at least for Wpg. it is going up to 12 degrees today so the weather man says no chance of us dying of the heat Love the pictures