Monkey Magic

After our “interesting” stopover in Phitsanulok (see Brendan’s previous post if you missed it), we jumped on a local bus and took the 1 ½ hr trip to Sukhothai. By way of a quick history lesson, Sukhothai was Thailand’s first capital city established in the 13th century and today it is divided into 2 main sections – the “new Sukhothai” and the “old Sukhothai” – I wonder how many subcommittees it took to came up with that genius! New Sukhothai has most of the accommodation and markets, while “old Sukhothai” contains Sukhothai historical park, a world heritage site with a massive collection of ruins.

We found a bargain guesthouse not far from the bus station (150 baht = $5) – I think we were the only people staying there because the owners looked very sad the day we left. There is not a whole lot to say for New Sukhothai…it was nice…it was very Thai (read that as not many tourists) and it seemed to specialise in the buffet style steamboat restaurants. Old Sukhothai is really the reason why we made our way out here and we were not let down!

We hopped on a bike and spent a day riding around the ruins of Sukhothai historical park. I was quite shocked the good condition of the ruins here (considering they are just out in the open and really at the mercy of the weather and tourists who walk over and around them every day). Compared to those at Angkor, these ruins had passed the test of time particularly well. It was a great day and made the trek out here worth it.

Next stop on the southern trail was Lopburi – a town that is a peculiar mix of ruins next door to shopping centres….and monkeys…lots and lots and lots of monkeys. I am not sure what to make of this place. On one hand it contains some beautiful ruins that are extremely accessible as they are right in the middle of town, but using a ruin as a round-a-bout is a little odd to me. This place is also overrun by monkeys! However, as far as the city is concerned, despite the mess and nuisance, the monkeys are a great dollar winner as they attract as many tourists as the ruins do. But when shopkeepers need to carry around slingshots to scare of the monkeys and rooftops are all covered in metal mesh and bars…is it really worth it? We woke up to a particularly gutsy monkey breaking into our room one morning. Brendan woke up to me shrieking “MONKEY” as the little bugger escaped back out our window with a bag of sticky rice that we had left on our table….thank God it was only after the food and didn’t opt for the money making option of nicking off with our Laptop or wallet.

The other thing that got to me a little about Lopburi was the noise. IT WAS LOUD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The reason for this was mainly a big festival ground that had been set up for the King’s 82nd birthday celebrations (5/12). It was like a massive fete with games, music, food and stalls. Every afternoon till early morning loudspeakers were blaring with announcements and quite bad thai music. We decided to brave it one night and go and have a look. Glad we did, but we didn’t stay long. When the heart palpitations kicked in from the over-done base and deafness was setting in, we decided that this wasn’t for us and retreated to our room. We did, however, enjoy watching one particular game where kids were given BB guns to shoot at targets to win an assortment of prizes…including longnecks of beer….hmmm…only in Thailand.

With the King’s birthday celebrations looming, we decided to skip out on Lopburi and catch a train further south to Ayuthaya to see what was going on. AND BOY WE WERE GLAD…….. but you will have to wait until the next post to find out why. Enough for now.

//Kate