I'm off to see the wizard

Mokey Tales

Well today you all are getting a treat, a one day pass to my travel
journal. I'm just so tired that I can't even think and I spent close to
an hour writing about my day earlier so I'm just going to mindlessly
type it in for you all to enjoy and I know you will. So please dont
mind any stupid mistakes I make now b/c I'm half asleep and might just
fall asleep while writing this.

Today I planned to take the train to Lop Buri and spend the day there
and then take the overnight train to Chiang Mai. But I was up tossing
and turning all night with a sore throat and was congested to hell. I
knew that this was coming, it was only a matter of time before it hit.
So I stayed in bed until 10 to get as much sleep as possible and then
decided to just do Lop Buri as a day trip b/c there was no way I was
sleeping on the train tonight. So I threw together a day bad, stopped
on my way out to pay for one more night and walked over to the ferry
to get to the train station. The ferry takes about 30 seconds to cross,
costs 2 whole baht and doesn't quite dock but actually just rams into
the floating dock while everyone runs off. When I got to the station I
got a ticket (13 baht) and had a good 20 thai mins (30 mins in our
time) to wait so I grabbed a can of coke and a container of pringles
(sour cream & onion), which came in handy later. When the train finally
arrived there were no seats left on my car, which was fine with me b/c
I sat on the stairs with the door open eating my breakfast and
admiring the scenery as it flew by. The ride was under an hour and I
read some Tom Robbins along the way. When I arrived in Lop Buri I got
off the train and visited the wat right across the street called "Wat
Phra Si Ratana Maharat" and snapped some photos before my last
batteries died. So I headed back to the train station and picked up
some new ones for 30 baht that died with in an hour. Then I got a ride
in a bike/rickshaw type thing to the TAT office, which was two seconds
away where I got a map of the city and found out where the monkeys hang
out. I headed straight there and about a block away out of the corner
of my eye I noticed something moving on top of the street sign. There
was a big old monkey just chilling up there and then I found another
one at the stop sign at the end of the street. Then I made it into Wat
Phra Prang Sam Yod paid my 30 baht foreigners fee and experienced
something beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Now I'd like to
crate a little list titled "Monkey Tales" about my time at Wat Phra
Prang Sam Yod. I'll try to keep it in sequential order.

Monkey Tales

1) One monkey came around behind me and climbed up my legs onto my
backpack to distract me. Then his accomplice came up and grabbed my
bottle of water and ran of with it. The smart little thing popped off
the top and drank the whole thing without even offering some to his
friend.



2) I was kneeling down to get a close up of a little guy when I noticed
two other guys approaching from the left. When I stood up I found
myself being circled by the little creeps. They were slowly closing in
on me from all sides, 6 of them. I just took one step at them and they
all ran off.

3) I had two cute babies infront of me so I found a stick on the ground
and started playing with them. One of them grabbed on to the stick and
I lifted him up into the air. Apparently the mother didn't like this
and ran over and grabbed my leg and started to climb me until I left go
of the stick and they ran off with it.



4) I was inside the wat where they installed metal bars so you could
feed the monkeys and get close to them without having them jump all
over you. I was squatting right near the bars and I put out my finger
for the baby and he grabbed it and held on. Then a few others reached
out and grabbed on too.

5) While sitting there in the wat I watched the monkeys and observed
many strange behaviors that I'll add on as a sub list.

a) First thing I noticed was how caring and gentle they could
be with each other while they were grooming.

b) Then I witnessed how nasty they could be. I saw a larger
monkey grab a smaller one by the testicles and fling him around for a
while. He proceeded to bite the poor little guy all over including his
testes. This was disturbing to watch but the worst part was everytime
the little guy escaped from the big guys hold he'd come charging back
only to be picked up by the nuts again.

c) Some one gave them marbles which they would carry around in
their mouths and then play with in between the bars. One little guy
dropped his and it rolled away so I pushed it back to him. when his mom
saw me touch it she screeched at me and grabbed the marble and then
just stared at me with her mouth open. I screeched back and she left
with the marble.

d) Monkeys pee where ever they are sitting and then just stay
there as if they didn't notice it happen and weren't sitting in their
own pee.

e) They smell! Every once in a while you'd get a whiff of hot
monkey that would just take your breath away.

f) Monkeys like hard candies, the Thai peope where giving them
what looked like strawberry hard candies and they would just suck away
happily. Then I noticed a few of them would lick the walls which
sucking on the candies, I never figured out what that was all about but
it was only the ones with candies licking the walls.

6) After watching the monkeys from inside the wat for 30 mins I
remembered I had some left over Pringles in by bag. I had 4 little guys
and a mommy reaching through the gate and I broke up the chips and they
were grabbing pieces faster then i could break them off.

After all that great time observing and interacting with the monkies I
left with a huge smile on my face and a feeling I'd be back here some
day. After that I picked up some more batteries and this time they
place had real ones. Then I just wondered down the street a bit and
stumbled upon Phra narai Rachanivaj. This is the ruins of a palace
built in 1665 by King Narai. It was huge and I just wondered around for
a while in awe of all the history I've taken over the past two days.
Growing up I never had any idea about Asian history and its amazing to
learn about it while standing amongst large pieces of it. After
wondering through the ruins for a while I walked back to the train
station, passing through what would be the night market। It was cool to see it coming together like that in the middle of the street.

posted by Brandon Share @ 8:20 PM