Hmmm

Day 320
There wasn’t much to do in Lopburi so I didn’t bother to wake up early. After packing up I left my things in storage and went off to find breakfast.

I had planned on visiting

the palace but I hadn’t planned on Chinese New Year and the museum being closed. I walked all around the walls, just in case I missed the entrance, but there was no way in.

The only open site in town was the monkey covered Phra Prang Sam Yot. The wat isn’t large but the monkeys were. There as a package group that had brought wrapped starbust like candy to give them. This just seemed wrong. These monkeys weren’t that cheeky and I was able to get a lot of really cute shots of them.

Once I had finished with the wat I was at a loss of what to do. I grabbed some lunch and then went to an internet café to kill time. On my way back I picked up some snacks for my night train. When I was just about back at the hotel to get my stuff I felt someone grab my shopping bag, I turned and there was a monkey grabbing my bag. I shook him off and he went away.

While I waited for my slightly late train a local quizzed me on why I would come to Thailand and what I thought of the language barrier. Three times security guards came over to check my ticket and tell me where I could go to get in my car.

In Europe night trains have compartments with 6 people in them, here it was just a big room. I had a lower bunk and it was quite private as there was a curtain. The doors to the car with the bathroom didn’t work very well and I go a bit stuck. After all this time carrying around that dumb bag you would think that I would gain some type of upper body strength. Oddly they never turned off the lights in the main car. I woke up a few times during the night and this really confused me about what time it was, but overall I got a really nice nights sleep.

Monkey On My Window

Day 319
I slept in a bit and then took my time eating and checking my email. I wasn’t going far so I wasn’t in a rush.

When I got to the bus station I realized that nothing was in English. The script used is completely incomprehensible and I am basically traveling illiterate at times. Most people here do speak English and I found the right bus in no time. Once I was on the bus a woman came by charging everyone 20 baht and gave out receipts. Before we left a kid about 12 or 13 took over the ticket giving job. About 20 minutes after he left he came and asked for me 40 baht. I told him that I didn’t mind paying as long as he could tell me what the 20 baht was for and showed him the receipt. After discussing it with the driver he told me that I didn’t have to pay again but couldn’t explain to me why there was an issue in the first place. I don’t think that he was trying to rip me off either; everyone else seemed to be paying 40 baht when they boarded the bus.

Lopburi isn’t much of a tourist destination and I didn’t have a map. I asked several people if they knew where the hotel I was looking for was, but no one seemed to recognize the street. I figured that it was a small one, but found out later that they just didn’t understand the question. I found a hotel anyway, and might have lucked out because I got a tv with some English channels! Plus there were monkeys hanging outside of my caged in window. They didn’t seem so interested in me when

After some lunch I decided to save the sites for another day and just wander around a bit. I found some monkeys on a couple of streets. They were hanging on the windows, on the telephone poles and blocking the sidewalk.

Eventually I got bored and went to the internet café for a bit. When I came out there was a large night market set up. I walked down the stands and picked out all sorts of different things on sticks. I have no idea what I ate, but it was all good.

Back in my room I spent a lot of time watching Fox News. Around 2 am I opened my window and about half a dozen monkeys ran towards me. It kinda freaked me out and I quickly shut the window.