It Was Worth It...

I think. As I mentioned in the last post, we decided to take a detour to Lopburi because the city is run by monkeys. As you can see from the pictures below, the books don't lie:

In the middle of the city is a temple covered with them. As we walked up the steps to the lawn around the temple, this little guy stole my shaved ice (I've only seen shaved ice once in Thailand and had to try it--doesn't compare to Hawaiian, Dad).

We were surprised to learn that the monkeys weren't afraid of us, and in fact, quite liked us--especially my backpack and camera case.

I'm the big white one in case you're confused.

They came right up and jumped on me repeatedly. SO FUN. I got some great videos, too. Don't worry--they didn't bite or scratch at all. Friendly creatures and very used to humans.

Downside to all this: no First Class trains run to Chiang Mai from Lopburi. This meant we either backtrack 2 hours to Ayutthaya or suck it up, pay our 210 Baht ($7), and ride Third Class for 12 hours. We chose the latter, and it was not fun. No A/C people! We were hot, covered in sweat, monkey filth, sunblock, and bug spray, and just had to sit with it on a warm train for 12 hours. Not to mention, I swallowed a bug.

You can try this at home if you want to experience it yourself. Just coat yourself with a thin layer of Elmer's Glue, roll around in a monkey pen at the zoo, empty a bug zapper tray onto your head, step into a sauna, and pour a nice big ladel of water onto the rocks. Marinate for 12 hours.

After arriving in Chiang Mai...

...and a hard fought battle of Paper, Rock, Scissors, I leapt into the bathroom for the greatest shower of my life. Upon returning to the states, I hope to forget the whole ordeal with the help of a good hypnotist. If you know of one, please get in touch.

Oh, and before I forget, I need to back track real quick. For our one and only night in Ayutthaya, we went over to the tiny Moon Cafe around midnight. We were the only ones there and after one drink, they were closing. We were about to leave when the Thai waitress struck up a conversation with us in broken english, and pretty soon a couple of the owners showed up (guys our age...they own it with their two other friends). They also started talking to us as best they could, and then their friends showed up. We ended up exhanging emails, magic tricks, and staying there till 3am. It was really great. We're going to try to swing back through there on our way south to the beaches. They want to go karaoke with us.