11/21/06

4 hour bus ride to the town of Lopburi. Slept through most of it. Great little town. Much less touristy. Here there are ruins dating back hundreds and hundreds of years. The town is pretty much built around the ruins. At one place I had a decent view of the ancient wat without going in, so didn't pay the 30 baht and took a picture from the outside. While taking the picture a monkey jumped on my head...I though how cute! Then one jumped on my leg and started tugging at my bag...Another started tugging at my hat. One climbed up my back, while one pulled off my glasses. I was DAMN lucky to get a grip on them and yank them out of his hand. They are STRONG and my glasses came back more than a bit bent up. :))))) I fixed them though...and somehow managed to get a shot of one sitting on my head during the ruckus. Then while walking away a few minutes later one peed on me from atop a wire :)))

Walked through a cool market here with all manner of things for sale. Bought some strange fruit that must be a direct relative of the grapefruit though the outside of it looked nothing like it, the inside sections, color, taste, pulp all looked very similar though not quite so bitter and the pulp was much much bigger.

In Lopburi Caucasians are far and few between. Again got a room with AC for 300 baht, but this one was substantially bigger and unlike the room in Bangkok, this one Included a blanket, TV, bigger bathroom (but still with shower in same area unsectioned from the toilet :) garbage can, and....a roll of toilet paper.

Internet here is 10baht per hour. This 1/4-1/6 the price I paid in Bangkok. Paid 8 baht for a large bottle of water and 2 baht for 2 small limes. I realized I can't live of Pad Thai alone and have been making an effort to buy some meats through the day. Bought a half-way decent breakfast this morning for 75 baht. Included coffee, egg, small piece of ham, little hot dog, and a very small glass of fresh squeezed orange juice.

Got some nice pictures of the monkeys and a couple short movies. Will do my best to get them uploaded at some point. Will be skipping Pattaya. Tomorrow will check out the town museum which is only open Wed-Sun, then onto the next town, then on to Chiang Mai.