Carzy train trips, monkeys and other catastrophes

We woke up super early today and headed to the train station headed dor Lopburi (or as I prefer to call it Monkey town). We had to get the express train as the ordinary train was ages away- and we were a bit miffed at the price (around ten bucks each compared to the fifty cents it had cost us to get from Bangkok to Ayatthya- a longer journey).

We planned to spend a couple of hours in Lopburi just to catch sight of some monkeys. Enthusiastically we ventured into the town- not caring to look at the map until we were well and truly lost and hadn't found any monkeys. The Lonely planet had asssured us that the monkeys were litarlly hanging from the train carriages! When I had just about given up hope of a monkey sighting we saw some monkey turds dotting the road! Yahoo my childish excitment meter was turned up. Across the road from the non-innocent poos were a band of cheeky monkeys sitting atop a car and a couple of motor bikes. We crossed the road and watched monkeys pulling people's belongings out of their car and sprawling them everywhere. A few monkeys seemed convinced they could ride motor bikes and were trying on the helmets for size. It was at this point that some mysterious fluid rained down from above onto Tim's dreaded head- looking up we discovered he ahd been unceremoniously been pissed on by a monkey! hA! Tim didn't seem his usualy jovial self after this point for quite a while.

Anyway we moved onto the old ruins that the monkeys call home to see that there were aproximately 100 monkeys living there. It was incredible to walk amongst these monkeys - and kind of scary as they probably have a thousand diseases.

We eventually ventured back to the station to catch the ordinary train to Phitsanoluk - the next major stop on our way North to Chaing Mai. We thought we were being very clever by catching the ordinary train which only cost around 2 dollars each rather than the touristy express train that was coming 20 minutes later. We thought we were so clever that we convinced a couple of German tourists to do the same. We thought that catching the train with the Thai people would be a more realistic experience of Thailand. It was. We also learnt not to assume anything. We had assumed that if we were sold tickets for a journey lasting 6 hours that there would be seats enough for all. Silly pampered Australian assumption.

Tim and I clambered aboard the train in the stinking heat of the middle of the day- with our packs on our backs to find there was barely standing room and the standing room we aquired was up against the toilet door. To make matters increasingly hilarious (read torturous) every 5 minutes a person selling hot soups, dried fishes, beer or some other interesting concoction would squesze past us. I counted 11 people in a space I estimated to be 1 square meter. Most of those people were standing. I successfully managed to avoid the eyes of the German tourists we had convinced to take this train. I also then assumed that most people would be getting off at the nex couple of stops and we wouldn't be standing for long. Again silly assumption. In all Tim and I stoof dor 3 of the 6 hours of the journey. And the 2 or the next three hours I sat with one bum cheek on a hard wooden plank seat. It was truly an unforgettable experience and I actually wouldn't trade it for an airconditioned carriage with padded seats.

We eventually arrived in Phitsanaluk and found some accomodation. We went for a walk to the night bizairre where we had some dinner. I was unimpressed to see that stir fried chilli frog was an option. Naturally I went for the shrimp instead.