After a relaxing morning in Ayuthaya we caught a two hour train to the town of Lopburi. At first site Lopburi appeared to be a very dull dreary run down town but there was a reason we chose to stop there... Monkeys! The monkeys run the town and can be seen everywhere. We went to walk around ruins of Prang Sam Yot and needed a guide who told us a bit of history about the ruins but more importantly kept the monkeys at a distance using a bamboo stick. This may sound extream but trust me it was necessary, if the guide left us for even a moment the monkeys swarmed in trying to climb us and steal any food that we may have had. It was defiantly an experience. Another funny moment during our visit was when myself, Deirdre and Ruth tried to get into the massive army base in the town in order to perve on the hot army guys. We strolled in past the gates and walked up until we met a barracks. There we boldly asked the officer if we could go past because we were tourists, he looked very confused but after a few moments of pondering told us he would ask his officer. Here we chickened out, told him it didn't matter and ran away... Lordie how we laughed.
We didn't stay the night in Lopburi, instead choosing to get an overnight bus to Chianh Mai. Honestly we were glad to leave as other than the monkeys the town was very rundown and miserable. I don't think we would have felt comfortable there for the night.
[Photos in album land of the monkeys and there is a video of they critters also]