Lopburi

Lopburi (Monkey City)

While travelling through Thailand, My fiancée and I decided to check out a small town about 1 hour from Ayutthaya called Lopburi known for its population of cheeky and adorable macaques.

We set out mid-morning on our rented scooter, which only cost us 200 baht per day to hire. When we arrived around lunchtime and found the center of the town we saw an impressive site of preserved ruins which had been set aside for the monkeys.

There was a small stand where we bought food pellets to feed the monkeys. The guardians of the monkey ruins were really helpful and gave us sound advice to remove any piercings or loose jewelry as the monkeys are very tame and quite inquisitive.

After a while in the midday sun, we decided to go and find a little bite to eat and something refreshing to drink. While sitting outside enjoying our lunch, we spotted a large male macaque entering a small shop and snatching a bag of cookies.

We stayed a little longer to take a few more pictures and then decided to head back to our hostel in Ayutthaya. When we got back to our scooter we remembered the bottle of water we had left in the front of the scooter. The monkeys had destroyed the bottle, emptying its contents all over the ground.

This was undoubtedly one of the highlights of our time in Thailand, and I highly recommend the detour to anyone in the area.

There are bus and train services available as well as taxis and shuttles making the trip regularly.