Attacked By Monkeys!

So I'm up in Chaing Mai now, recovering slowly from my near-death experience after having been attacked by savage primate beasts in Northern Thailand. Okay okay, I'm exaggerating...but I do have quite the story to tell you!

I left Bangkok Monday morning and boarded a bus to take me to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is one of the former capitals of the Thai Kingdom and as a result is home to dozens of ancient temple ruins. They're all part of a historical park that is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site and being the history buff that I am, I was really excited to check them out.

An hour and a half out of Bangkok I arrived in town, found my hostel, checked in, and had rented a bike. I spent the afternoon biking between the ruins and loved the beauty of every crumbling chupa, chedi, wat, shrine, pillar, and Buddha statue that I came across. The weather wasn't exactly cooperating but I pushed onwards still, determined to see as many ruins as I could in my afternoon there.

The next morning I went to the train station and bought a ticket to my next destination - Lopburi. Lopburi used to be a capital as well, at one time, and like Ayutthaya is also full of beautiful ruins scattered throughout the city. However, it's not the ruins that most tourists come to Lopburi to see... Instead it's the resident colony of monkeys that have besieged this small city. Apparently a long time ago a nearby colony of monkeys split into two, and the rogue faction that broke off moved out of the forest and into the city. They spend most of their time hanging out in the temple ruins, but also spend a good part of the day wandering through the city where they climb up buildings and into people's homes, steal food and clothing and personal possessions and really just about anything they can get their hands on, damage cars and break things, and throw poop at people and windows when they get really angry. Cool!

At the train station in Ayutthaya I met a really friendly couple from Florida and we decided to hang out and travel together in Lopburi. The train ride there was magical. It was just over an hour long, and we rode in third class where all the windows are wide open, and you sit and stare out at the lush green Thai countryside with the warm breeze blowing through your hair. Now *this* is a great way to travel!

We checked out a couple ruins in Lopburi before finding the home of the monkey colony. There we were shocked to see how many monkeys there were! There must've been a good 200 or so of them climbing all over the ruins, sleeping, grooming each other, feeding each other fruit, jumping and playing together...it was all so cute! We were really excited to see the monkeys up close and take some photos. They're used to seeing people and are not afraid of tourists (this turned out to be a bad thing, as I later learned the hard way...) and I was getting some truly incredible photographs of the primate families interacting together. (I've got my submissions for National Geographic all ready to send off now.)

Well I was crouched down on the temple grounds taking a photo of some monkeys walking in the grass, when all of a sudden one of them sneaked up behind me and JUMPED onto my backpack! Now I had been careful in watching the monkeys all this time because they're notoriously smart and sneaky and will do almost anything to steal your possessions, but this guy I didn't see coming at all. I jumped up and spun around really quickly to try and get him off my backpack, but the little bugger just held on tightly and was trying desperately to get into my backpack. My spinning and yelling didn't seem to deter him, and at this point he called in for back-up. One of his buddies, who I didn't see coming either, ran up and jumped on to MY LEG! OMG!

At this point I realized "Holy Fuck! I've got not one, BUT TWO, monkeys on me!" and it wasn't so fun anymore. I began to yell and flail even more, and the two of them jumped off and ran away, but not before the second one gave me a bite/scratch on the leg. We left the temple and honestly I totally forgot about the incident. Later that evening we got a train up to Phitsanulok and went straight to bed since we got in quite late. In the morning I looked at my leg and saw a small bruise on my thigh and what looked like two small teeth marks! Oh boy! Knowing that monkeys can sometimes have diseases I thought it best to go and get it checked by a doctor.

So off we went and I had my first foreign hospital experience. The Thai hospital was really quite clean and modern and the staff there were extremely friendly and helpful. I spoke with a doctor and after examining my leg, he decided that I didn't need any shots. The 'wound' showed no characteristics of a monkey bite and because the skin hadn't been broken and no blood shed, I was at no risk for disease. He determined that it was most likely just a scratch from the monkey's claw, or simply a bruise from before. I was relieved to hear this, cause nothing ends a vacation quicker than contracting rabies and foaming at the mouth! What was also great was that my visit didn't cost me a penny. I don't know why, but they didn't charge me for anything, which was great.

Carlos, Paulo, and I spent the day visiting two more UNESCO parks full of ruins and they were even more beautiful than Ayutthaya's or Lopburi's! We visited Sukhothai Historical Park, and Si Satchanalai Historical Park, and both of them are home to many, many crumbling ruins of ancient Thai capitals. What was more enjoyable with these two was the beautiful, serene, natural surroundings. The ruins are surrounded by parkland and jungle, and especially at Si Satchanalai, they're less restored and feel a lot more 'authentic.' Wandering through these ruins, climbing up their steps, and exploring all the toppled towers and crumbling pillars, you can't help but feel like you're Indiana Jones and have just discovered some Lost City that's been swallowed up by the jungle for centuries. I loved it!

We had a long, full day of exploring these two parks, and then that evening we caught a sleeper train to Chaing Mai up in the north. I'm off to a cooking class tonight, then to check out the Night Bazaar, and then tomorrow I've got a flight to catch to Laos. I'm excited about my next destination, and am looking forward to more adventures - with or without monkeys! ;-)