Lotburi and the Monkeys

What I love about Thailand is the generosity of its' people. When Sylvia and I were walking throgh the 3rd class car to find a seat to Lotburi and older gentleman told us in perfect English to sit down beside him . It turns out he is a retired music and language teacher living on 10,000 baht a month and the nicest person you would ever want to meet. I assumed the two girls sitting with him were his daughters but it turns out they were Korean journalist students spending their last day seeing the countryside.

On our way home, we were asking where the bus station was and a girl on her motorcycle told us it was about 1 kilometer away. She offered to give us a lift and I told Sylvia I would walk and she could get on the bike. No problem, I thought, until I saw her returning for me about five minutes later. Frankly, this does not surprise me and happens absolutely all the time.

I have to remember this when I think of the phone incidence last week-end. Can't remember whether I talked about it or not, but we were going out to eat with a Thai lady and her daughters. I passed my phone to the cab driver and asked him to get directions to the restaurant. When we arrived, I checked my pocket, as I always do, and realized the cabbie still had the phone. We immediately called and sent him text messages which he failed to respond to, meaning he meant to steal the phone. What I have to constantly remember is that I take about 2 cabs every day so dishonest cabbies are a rare commodity ( I hope)

We just got back from Lopburi as you can see from the pictures in Picassa. The town is overun with monkeys who climb the telephone wires, every public building in the place and certainly the temples. As Sylvia and I walked through the main temple, the guard shut the 'jail' door and shooed the monkeys away so they would not get inside. Sylvia and I looked at them from the inside out looking through steel windows. Was this a zoo in reverse, Sylvia asked.

We did venture outside and you can see how many hundreds of monkeys were frolicking around the Wat. Clearly what makes them so interesting is the way they play, just like we do!

I will have to go back next year. There were supposed to be glorious sunflower fields which I thought would look like the mustard fields in the California wine area but they apparently are now finished. There is also waterfalls which look amazing, for Thailand anyway. Coming from Ontario, can't imagine they would compare with the "Falls!"

I guess I will have to seriously consider whether I want to buy a car next year. It would allow me to go 'upcountry' anytime I wanted and see any waterfalls, fields or other things that struck my fancy. The dilemma is: would I meet the people and this is what this story and life is really about, isn't it?