the journey seemed like it should have been easy enough. we opted to leave from the northern bus terminal which is pretty close to the last stop on the bts, mo chit. the three of us met up at that stop and then taxied over to the bus terminal. however, of course we arrived at the perfect time for rush hour and it took us a good half hour to get to the station. then when we get there, we get directed all over the place by multiple people before finding the stall to buy the tickets to our destination. so we get there and find out if we arent taking the immediate next bus, which was leaving in 10 minutes, (which we werent cause we needed to eat before our journey) then we couldnt book yet. ok. fine. head back to the other side of the station for dinner. then walk back to the booth to buy our tickets, all the while being pointed in still different directions by people thinking we have no clue whats going on.
finally, we get on our bus which is set to leave at 8:20. we are pulling out by 8:30, not to bad by thai time standards, so we figure we will be in lopburi by 11. but then the most obnoxious thing starts to happen. every 10 minutes or so, we start stopping on the side of the street. it is a normal occurrence to stop and pick up a few people a random spots along the way, but this was like...a new load of people getting on and off at every stop, almost as if using this bus as a mass transit, public bus.
not.cool.
i was already in a bad mood...or according to tasha and steph, a more than bad mood, and was not having it. so steph said something to the guy about how long it would take to get to the city, showing that we had a feeling something was up, and eventually the side stops stopped. but that wasnt the end of our debacle. nope. about an hour before we should have been arriving, the attendant started to ask us for 300 baht, or 100 baht each. when we would ask him for what, he would ramble on in thai for 5 minutes and we would just keep saying that he had ALREADY COLLECTED OUR TICKETS showing that we had already paid. this happened at least three times until we finally pulled into the bus station and could escape the bus. then he tried to point us in the direction of the city. we knew there were no cabs here, and so we started in the direction he showed us until we realized that we were heading away from the lights.
luckily (?) as we were walking and looking lost, a car pulled up next to us and asked where we were going. when we said into the city, he told us he was a taxi and was going there. despite the fact that he already had two thais in the car, we hesitantly got in. the entire ride, the driver and the two thais kept talking about us, but at this point, we didnt even really care. we got to the hotel we were planning on staying at and got out, ready to crash.
we had been told that lopburi isnt really a big tourist spot and that it would be easy to get a room. but nope. that was not the case. the first, and second, and third places we tried were all full. eventually, after wandering around the city for a bit, a nice thai man decided he would try to help us out. he took us to a few more spots, which were also full, and then he was about to start taking us to a few we had already gone to when i spoke up and said we had already been there. so he took us a different way and THANKFULLY they had one room available. it was just a fan room with no hot water (and no sink either) and with windows facing the street, but it was a place to sleep. and thats what we did.
the next morning when we got up and started searching the city to see what the festival had to offer. we decided to first eat, but the places we went to at first only had western (?!) food offered in the morning and we wanted thai. finally we found a place on the side of the road and had some breakfast/lunch, but it wasnt very good. it gave us enough energy to continue on though, and so we went to see king narai reigns castle. (the festival was for that king) almost immediately, while we were watching a performance, some thais called us over to join them in their festivities. they were a group of mostly men, with a few of their wives, who spoke some decent english. they started chatting with us and then had us sit with them and began to offer us food, alcohol, drinks, and then they even started fanning us! we sat with them for a while until we decided we needed to see more of the festival, so we told them we would be back later and headed on.
steph and tash with our lopburi friends.
the city is tiny but actually really cool, as it is built around ruins. there is one that is in the middle of a traffic circle, and even though its not the most modern city by any means, it was cool to see the contrast of that very old mixed in with the new. we kept walking around and seeing what there was to offer, but we got confused because we had yet to see any of these monkeys we had heard so much about. we asked someone and they told us that they congregate around a certain monument because thats where they get fed. so we headed over to that area and were waiting for meghan and emily to arrive when i started feeling really sick. sure enough, as soon as our friends got there, i was throwing up on the sidewalk, and the monkeys had come over to eat it, little scoundrels. so while everyone continued on, i went back to the room to lie down for a bit and try to feel better.
the ruins in the middle of the city.
a few hours later, they came back to get me and i was feeling fine again. we went out and bought some 'thai' outfits to wear that night, and then went back to get ready. then we went for food, which took hours, and following that meghan and emily left (o i didnt get to spend time with them in lopburi, boo). so it was just the three of us again and we headed out to see more of the festival, since we were told it was more of a night thing anyway. and it was. there were fireworks, and parades, and light displays, and shows. we walked around for a while, and had a lot of people asking us for pictures with them, haha. between that and the people fanning us earlier, we felt famous!
we actually asked her to take a pic with us! the lady who sold us the clothes, hehe
we went and saw some muy thai boxing, for free, and had an amazing time there. this time, it was a lot more aggressive than when we went in hua hin and we were actually in the crowd with the thais, who really get into it, cheering and such. but since they hadnt had a three hour nap like i had, they were tired, and so we called it an early night.
we got up early the next day, but i refused to leave without spending some time with the monkeys. so thats what we did for about a half hour.
more monkeys than people?
baby baby, right in front of me! no zoom!
monkeys all over me!
and even though it was a rough start, i left lopburi happy.
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