Today we took the train to Lopburi, which the locals call 'the town of monkey's. Every February the town puts on a banquet for the monkeys that run wild in the old town and hang around the ruins, waiting for tourists to feed them. I'd seen a photo of the monkeys just strolling around on the pavements so when we got out of the train station I was a little disappointed that I didn't see one single monkey. So I kind of forget about them whilst we ate, thinking maybe they only roam the streets when the banquet is on, staying at the ruins for the tourists food. Walking over to the ruins it was then a bit of a surprise to see monkeys on top of vans, underneath cars, crossing the roads in gangs, on top of buildings and running along cable wires above our heads. Some were simply sat on the pavements staring or looking through rubbish. The locals never batted an eyelid apart from occasional beeping when they stood in the road. It was funny to watch a gang of monkeys running down an alley, as if they were up to mischief!
When we reached the ruins we hadn't seen enough monkeys if the amount here was anything to go by! They were all over this temple. I've some really good pictures on my camera. There were lots of baby monkeys pottering around and clinging onto their mothers. No wonder there are so many of them! We had to take off our sunglasses or the monkeys would be attracted to them/steal them-I didn't need an answer to try and stop any chance of getting rabies! There was a tour group nearby with the guide feeding monkeys, always going for the big males first to try and avoid fights. The monkeys didn't need an excuse to fight, they sounded like cats constantly squabbling over something or other. Ben reckons he fed a monkey as the guide was giving bits of food out to the group which Ben has hidden in but I didn't see this so I'm not so sure!! We saw some monkeys jumping on people, they were a lot more harmless (or less aggressive than we've previously witnessed) than I expected, maybe it just depends if you have food. One monkey got on a guys shoulder and was picking and eating through his long curly hair as if he were another monkey!!! We had a really good time!
We navigated our way back through the streets of monkey gangs-they were a lot more relaxed, maybe because they are used to finding their own food on the streets, not getting anxious and fighting over food that appears from tourists at the ruins. But we made our way to the old ruins of the palace and then to another site. They were just boring without monkeys!!!!
We got the train back and went on a boat trip to 3 temples and ruins a little farther away that we didn't get to cycle to.
We saw a very big gold Buddha (a lot bigger than the one I said was big yesterday!!!), a big kind of tower ruins site and then a really amazing set of temples in pretty good condition. They are probably my favourite ruins so far. The choice of what photo to use was tough between a monkey and these ruins but I figured Ben would have photos of the ruins on his blog! Plus I had such a good time with the monkeys!
Tomorrow we head to Bangkok for a couple of days before we make our way to Cambodia. I can't wait for Bangkok-the food, big lizards, clothes and atmosphere. Plus Ben's getting an IPad 2 so we can finally download lots of photos (I've had to buy another memory card in the meantime). The iPad with be called iPad Thai 2. As in pad Thai...the countries favourite dish...we have too much time on our hands!