Ive got a feeling... that this could be one of those memories...: Lop Buri

After we got back from Koh Samed, I spent the week catching up on sleep and enjoying sleeping in a real bed. The week actually passes by fast when you only have class for four days a week. The teachers assigned homework, and I had my first test last Friday. We had heard about a place a few hours above Bangkok called Lop Buri who have a pack of wild monkeys that live on the local temple ruins. We got up early on Saturday to take the day trip. I had stayed up extra late and gotten up extra early, so I took the opportunity to sleep on the train.

The first monkey we saw when we got off the train was this one.

This town takes their monkeys seriously, because there were statues of monkeys everywhere! As soon as we arrived, we headed down the street toward the famous monkey infested ancient wat. We saw the monkeys on the corner of an intersection from about 20 meters away. They were hanging on the telephone wires, sitting on the stop sign, running across the shop awnings, perched on the fence above the shops, climbing on the barbed wire of the telephone poles... basically they were everywhere. We probably spent the first 15 minutes taking pictures of the creatures, and they didnt seem to mind... until Steve got a video camera in their face. The monkey was about 4 feet from Steve's face when he snarled. He pulled back his lips to show his teeth and ran after Steve with his face in a fierce formation. He let Steve get away, but continued to shriek at passersby on the street corner. Steve didn't get close to another monkey the entire day.

We crossed the street to see the wat ruins where we saw many more monkeys. They were lounging around the wat, content to be photographed by the tourists. If you look carefully at his photo, you can see the camouflaged monkeys.

I walked up to a baby monkey to get a closer look. He really did look harmless. I had extended my hand to point at him and turned my head to show the boys, who were about 10 feet away from me. Next thing I know the baby monkey has jumped on my arm! My immediate reaction was to shake him off, kind of like you would shake off a bug. He was holding onto my arm and hanging upside down. The sensation of him climbing up my arm was scary and thrilling at the same time. He hadnt mastered the ability to sit on top of my arm just yet, so I helped him balance and took a good look at him. He jumped down when he had enough, but he succeeded in making my day memorable!

We continued to walk through the wat ruins and found more monkeys. Josh got groomed by a monkey, Johnny pacified one with his empty water bottle, and Steve stayed far away from the commotion. After about 10 or 15 minutes of the monkeys, the newness was gone and the monkey filth was left all over us. They monkeys became more comfortable with us and started trying to get in our bags (they know how to work zippers!). They would gang up 3 or 4 to one person and try to open the backpack.... and thats about the time we made our way for the door. A thought kept crossing my mind that these were actual wild monkeys and could probably do some damage to us if they wanted to do so. When they got a little out of hand, the security guard would come over and disperse them with a pole. I read a sign in the wat that explained that people should not feed the monkeys, as they are fed twice a day by the security guard. Feeding the monkeys simply teaches them that all visitors are supposed to give them food, and will encourage them to harass tourists for their possessions.

We kept walking around the town for the next few hours and saw a money free ancient wat's ruins. We also saw a money swimming pool near the train tracks where a group of monkeys cooled off from the hot sun.