Monkey Temple

Another sleeper train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok went by in a flash. The morning of our arrival in Bangkok, we jumped right back on a train to Lopburi, a city known for its notable monkey population. Be bought our train tickets in a hurry and purchased the 30 Baht ($1) third class ticket rather than the 300 Baht 2nd-class ticket. With regard to the comfort of third class, as Jordan phrased it, "Let's just write this off as a cultural experience" For $1 I guess it was a good deal, but the lack of A/C or fan on a 3-hour local train, accompanied by all the interesting sights and smells. It was an experience (to say the least).

The old city of Lopburi is within walking distance from the train station. It is also showered with tiny monkeys that will scavenge through almost anything, ride on cars for transportation, and do not deem it necessary to find any privacy for thier lewd acts. It was a lot of fun hanging out with the monkeys. In fact, most of the local businesses have bamboo poles and slingshots to keep the monkeys away. As we ate lunch, the shopowner began his target practice with tiny pieces of chalk. The monkeys were much smarter, however, and they all took cover at the sight of the slingshot. We visited an ancient temple at the city center known as the "monkey temple". Pretty much the main sanctuary for these little guys, the temple had at least 500 monkeys running about. Old, young, fat, skinny, male, female-every type of monkey imaginable could be seen inside. We walked through with our bamboo hitting stick (for safety measures) and a bag of sunflower seeds. Immediately they would scurry up near our legs, position themselves on their hind legs , and grab the seeds out of our hands as quick as possible before the Alpha male came and chased them away.