Monkeying Around in Lopburi

Our next stop on our journey north was to the lesser visited town of Lopburi. It is one of the oldest cities in Thailand, and my favorite that we have been to so far. There are several reasons for this; first, the traffic is significantly lighter here than in the places we have previously been; second, the people are so friendly and laid back; and third, the monkeys!

About 800 years ago, a Hindu shrine was built in the middle of a densely forested area. This forested area had previously been the home to a number of macaques. As the town grew up around this temple (which eventually was converted to a Buddhist temple), the people accepted the monkeys, and viewed them as descendants of a Hindu god, seeing them as good luck. As time has gone on though, the population of the monkeys has grown significantly (there are probably about 9000 of them, and they are working on more every minute, if you know what I’m saying…) and they have basically taken over a couple parts of the town, most notably the original wat, Phra Prang Sam Yot. The monkeys are clearly a tourist attraction but they have created quite a problem for the local residents by invading homes, vandalizing cars and stealing food. Here is an interesting article I found related to this topic. We were warned to hold on to our stuff because the monkeys liked to grab sunglasses or whatever they could get their hands on, which I found to be all too true!

So, here was what we could see of the monkeys from OUTSIDE the wat where 500 of them live. As you can see, they have taken over the streets, hanging from the awnings of storefronts. You had to watch all around you because they were EVERYWHERE!

So we went to go visit the wat and they armed us with these bamboo sticks.

Unfortunately, my stick didn’t last long because these little guys came up and grabbed ahold!! Next thing I knew, there were like four of them holding on to it and climbing up! I didn’t want to sacrifice my hand, so I just let go!

And then my stick became their new toy. There was no way I was getting that back.

As you can see, the monkeys were just crawling all over this place! The man who was guarding the wat let us inside the building where the monkeys were not allowed, which was much nicer. We could get pretty close to them as they were hanging on the windows, but could not reach us.

Later, we got brave and went back so I could drop some of my mom’s ashes outside of the wat. We had stopped and gotten some tea and I put what was left of it in my bag while we were taking the picture. Next thing I know, a big guy is coming at me and snatches the cup out of my bag!! I may have screamed a little at that point. hahaha

Before leaving town, we decided to go back to the wat one more time to see the monkeys. Our plan was just to sit back and watch one last time. Well…I lost another stick AND became a monkey climbing tree. Although hilarious to think about now, this was so scary in the moment!

Seriously, this town was great!