Lopburi Travel Guide

If you are going to visit Lopburi, which is known as Monkey Town, be careful! Monkeys roam around the town freely, getting up to all sorts of mischief! The worst affected place is the temple of Prang Sam Yot, where aggressive monkeys rule the place. We saw some people being attacked, which is not much fun since rabies is really prevalent in Thailand. We decided to visit the temple at midday, since we figured the monkeys might be too hot to bother us. And it worked! Hardly any monkeys gave us real trouble although some tried, but they were mostly young ones. We hanged around for a while taking photos in turns, watching each other's back. It was incredibly hot, but worth it to see the place in relative peace. By the time we left, the monkeys were getting active again and moving around in large menacing packs, no kidding!

Beware of the monkeys!  They're all over the place and you dont want to get bitten (will necessitate several rabies shots), so it's important to move slowly around them, and not act nervous - I swear all of the brainpower of behind those little eyes goes into sussing out whether you're more afraid of them then they are of you - based on what they conclude, they'll either leave you alone, or jump on your head and start pulling and chewing your hair.  Oh, and if you bring food with you to feed them, dont expect to hold onto it long - they're not interested in the peanut you've got in you hand - they'll just climb on top of you to find the bag it came from and run off with the loot.

This is where my mom was born. It's a 150 km ride from Bangkok. It is one of the oldest cities in the country. Today, it is mostly known for the Crab-Eating Macaques living in the city, especially around the Khmer temple. Beware, they steal whatever they can because they're aren't scared of us! In November, there's even a Monkey Festival.