Lop Buri
-------------

Today I went on my furthest solo adventure since Pattaya. I think it's confirmed that I have what you may call 'itchy legs'. I was still contemplating whether to stay at the apartment, go to work or go travel somewhere. One part of me wanted to just laze around and do nothing while another part of me was saying 'seize the day!'. As for working, well, I only wanted to work for a few hours and thought it was not feasible to go for work on Saturday just to do a small bit of work.

I was contemplating whether to go to Dusit area or Lop Buri. At Dusit area, I can go for the Vimanmek Palace, the Christian churches, Thewet flower market, Wat Benchamabophit and the Dusit zoo. That would cover one whole day. Then there was Lop Buri which has a few fantastic ruins (Khmer architecture). And this town was accessible by train which I knew where the station was. The only flaw to this trip would be the long journey which is slightly more than 3 hours!

During my swim this morning, I suddenly decided that I will go for the latter choice because I really didn't want my day to end doing nothing. I think I will be more stressed with that!

The main station in Bangkok is the Hua Lamphong station which I found out last week while buying train tickets for two of my friends who will be coming over around Christmas time. I think discovering the train station actually expanded my other future places of interest to visit when I'm free.

You know, I haven't taken a train ride since I was 6 or 7 years old. And this would be my second ride after a lapse of 20 years! Wow! I was already excited about the journey!

If I haven't said it, I'll say it again - I just love travelling! I love going to places - free and easy style. That means just get up and go style - not much planning - anything goes! And I really needed this attitude because I don't have a good map of Lop Buri. I don't how Lop Buri looks like, which stop it's gonna be and how to go to the places of interest. I thought since it's considered as a tourist area, I should have no problem in getting there.

The ticket price from Bangkok to Lop Buri is so damn cheap! At only 28baht (3rd class)! I just looked at the ticket in bewilderment when I got it. It was the cheapest 'joy ride' I ever had. Being afraid of getting on the wrong train, I made sure I asked the locals to get into the correct train. I didn't want to end up lost some other place!

Unfortunately the scenery between Hua Lamphong station to Lop Buri station wasn't exactly fascinating to me. After passing the Don Muang station onwards, the scenery mostly consists of paddy fields. Reminds of being in Kedah or Perlis. The rice fields are real near to the railway track that I can even see the grains of the paddy. Saw lots of herons(?) - those white long necked, long legs birds. A few buffalos. Most of the fields are not ready for harvest - like lots of green football fields around.

At the Ayutthaya station, one can see glimpses of some of the ancient city ruins. I think I saw the top structures of Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon and Wat Phra Si Sanphet. It gave me an idea that I could visit the amazing old city of Ayutthaya once again. How could I ever get bored of Thailand?

There was nothing much onwards until Lop Buri. At Lop Buri, you can see the awesome three prangs of Prang Sam Yot.

The ride in the train was pretty much like when I take the commuter train between Seremban and K.L. I love the sound of the train running on the rail tracks. However, if there is another passing train on the opposite side, it can get pretty noisy and scary - it's as if the other train is so close into banging into yours. The ride inside also provided me with a glimpse of Thai people in their everyday life. Here, I also felt a sense of gratitude for the life I have. There were a few peddlars selling foodstuff in the train. I think life is pretty hard for them. They go from end to end selling their wares. There was a station (I think at the Banpachi Junction) where the train stopped for about 10 minutes. Many peddlars came up especially those selling crushed ice cream in a small cup for 5 baht.

It wasn't stuffy in the train. There were fans here and there and of course the winds blowing in from the windows. I was surprised that it was pretty clean as well. It was a pleasant ride even though I had to stand for 3 hours! I gave my seat to two small kids at the first station stop. That was good too because I could stand and face the door window and view the passing scenery.

You can't miss the Lop Buri stop. There was a clear signboard at the station. A bit of info on the timing. My train journey started at 11.15am and I passed somewhere far behind my client's place in Rangsit at 12.30pm. I reached Ayutthaya station at 1pm and finally reached Lop Buri at 2.35pm. Whew!

I'm not entirely sure but the previous day when I phoned the station, the last train leaves at 5pm. The second last train was at 4pm. My intention was to reach my apartment by 8pm. That means I need to take the 4pm train. And that also means I only have about 1 and a half hours at Lop Buri! I quickly decided that my target destinations would be Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat and Prang Sam Yot. The only problem was that I wasn't sure where these places were from the railway station.

Of course my concern was quickly dispersed when I got off from the station. The Wat Phra Si Rattana was smacked right in front of the station! And with that I could easily explore the Lop Buri touristic area because the map in my tour guide book has the area around Wat Phra Si Rattana. I decided to go for Prang Sam Yot first which was just a walking distance away.

The site of Prang Sam Yot right in the town surrounded by modern shops was pretty amazing. What's even more amazing was that there were many monkeys running around the grounds around it.

Lop Buri is one of Thailand's oldest cities and it was once an important outpost of the Khmer Empire. The three prangs of Prang Sam Yot was originally consecrated as a Hindu shrine but later Buddha images were added to two of them.

There were a number of tourists there but they only headed at one side of the prang. Nobody was walking around the grounds of this area due to the monkeys. As for me, well, if you know me well enough, to me animals are my friends so I can't be bothered about the monkeys, although I am quite the cautious type. I saw that the monkeys were pretty contented by themselves so I thought they were pretty harmless. So I took my time of photographing the place from the four angles. At the last angle, I thought a picture of the monkeys playing with the backdrop of the Prang Sam Yot would make an interesting photo. And so I bent down and positioned myself to get a good shot of the monkeys. And you know what? Suddenly I had three monkeys climbing all over me! One was at my back and two was on my legs! They were actually 'attacking' me - waving their hands/claws at my hand when I tried to get them off me! Somehow I managed to disentangle myself calmly from them and found that I had a small cut of the calve of my left leg. The situation could have turned ugly had I panicked and screamed and tried to brush them off harshly. I also confirmed that I am a person who doesn't panick easily. I would say I would be the last one to scream or run for cover (which is actually not good because that would be probably be harmful to myself). I'd be the first to be eaten by the tiger if there was one!

Anyway, after that pretty 'amazing' incident, I was of course more cautious when I see monkeys from that day onwards. If someone tells me that the monkeys are guardians of the shrine (I think monkeys have been considered as guardians to many temples around the world), then, they are doing a fantastic job at Prang Sam Yot!

The inside of Prang Sam Yot is pretty eerie and gloomy. There were two buddha images inside but they are headless. I wouldn't want to be here at night.

After that, I looked at my watch and I still had a lot of time to roam around the town before heading Wat Phra Si Rattana. So, I walked the path according to my guide book which passes Prang Khaek, another Hindu shrine (believed to date as far back as the 8th century). That's what I love about this town. You have the very old and new in one place. I also walked pass the Phaulkon Residence - another old ruin. Other places of interest were Wat Sao Thong Thong, King Narai's Palace and the Narai National Museum. However, I wasn't really interested in these places and one more important thing was that I didn't have enough time!

Surprisingly Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat didn't receive as many tourists as it should have. This place is just as interesting as Wat Phra Si Sanphet in Ayutthaya but on a smaller scale. It doesn't have those Sri Lankan style chedies. At its centre, is a 12th century Khmer prang. There was a main Buddha image stone in the middle (headless also) and the ruined walls that surrounds the centre makes me feel that this place was really holy and sacred. And I also felt very much at peace here. It was quiet - I was the only person around with only about 5 visitors outside. I think if I was still studying, I would come here with my books and read here.

I was back at the station at 3.50pm but to my disappointment the next ticket counter was closed and the person told me that the next train was at 5pm. I had to wait till 4.30pm for the counter to open again. I had pretty much covered what I wanted to see in Lop Buri and so I waited at the station - reading. At 4.30pm, I got my ticket and waited again for the train.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the security around the rail tracks is like zero. I mean, in Malaysia, we aren't allowed to walk across railway tracks but here we have to do it because it's the only way to get across! There were four railway tracks at Lop Buri, so I had to asked one of the locals to make sure I was at the right railway track or else I may end up at Chiang Mai!

The journey back to Bangkok was definitely a 'lazy' one for me as one can't see much from 6pm onwards as Bangkok starts to get dark from that time onwards. However, the red orange sky at sunset at the paddy fields was a pretty sight. I utilized my time in the train by alternating between reading and trying to sleep (fortunately I had a seat for the journey back).

Once back at the apartment, I had a bath and went swimming again! It felt like I was in a big bath tub. It was most enjoyable after a tiring and hot walk from the Lop Buri trip.

As you can see, I had another wonderful weekend yet again in Thailand!

1.12.2000 - Airbus Pub and bowling
---------------------------------------------------

I very much look forward to try 'cosmic' bowling in Bangkok. The 'cosmic' thing was that the alley was dimmer and there were spotlights at the bowling alley. And also the loud dance music pumping away. I'm talking about bowling at RCA with a few of my colleagues. It was a quite an interesting place to play and I pretty much enjoyed myself - as I normally do when bowling. I just like giving high fives to my friends who had a strike or a spare. I like the cheers that we give to each other.

After bowling, Sak, my Thai colleague took us (Jo, Chew, Kenny and me) to a pub called Airbus. And that was a new experience to me as well. The pub plays mostly Thai pop songs (which sound very, very Western) and there were huge billboards showing music videos and a stage with the DJ on the turntables. It's pretty cool and there was hardly much dance floor as the floor was occupied with tall small round tables with people crowding around it. Things started to get rauchier when there was a live band starting to play. There were mainly three singers who took turns singing. Also mostly Thai numbers except for the only lady singer who sang Madonna's Music (lame attempt as we could hardly hear her voice) and Britney Spear's Lucky (not bad!). The other two singers was a cool long haired guy and another guy who (as Kenny puts it) looks pretty much sissy type. They entertained the crowd pretty well.

All in all, I felt pretty weird - like a foreigner (although I am!) at the pub. I would prefer the English singing bands where I can understand what's being sang. I LOVE live rock bands especially where the accoustic guitars play the loudest. That's why I seem to like the Thai folk band playing at Full Moon (a very Thai restaurant which to my opinion offers the best Thai tom yam kung soup). I think I'm probably the only foreigner who thinks they are quite a great band although I dunno what the heck they are singing!

3/12/2000 - Night at Grand Palace
------------------------------------------------

According to Tippawan, the night scene at the area around Grand Palace on this weekend would be pretty as many of the places will be lit up for the coming celebration of the King's Birthday on 5th December.

So I decided to witness it. Before that I went to the Lumphini Park to see whether there was an orchestra playing there. I saw that in December (in the Amazing Bangkok 1999 brochure), there was supposed to be an orchestra playing outdoors at the Palm Tree Garden. But to my disappointment, I walked around the park and did not see any orchestra playing at all.

I was about to look for a taxi to go to Grand Palace but then suddenly I thought why not try the tuk-tuk? And so I did!

Riding in the tuk-tuk was pretty exciting. The drivers are really notorious on the road and most of the time I had to grab hold of the side handlebars. The only complaint I have is that the air in the city is pretty polluted (and the diesel smell is quite prominant) and also the cover of the tuk-tuk is not high enough. I can't get a good outside view unless I bend my head a little.

When the we arrived at the area around Grand Palace, I had the driver take me around Sanam Luang as well as the area there was prettily illuminated with lights as well. I got down there as there was some kind of show being put up on a stage at the field. Some traditional music and dance was on and lots of people around the field. Some were sitting on mats and enjoying the atmosphere. It was like a carnival there.

I then took a cab to Ma Bu Kong (MBK) near the National Stadium. Due to the heavy traffic jam, the driver took to another road across the Chao Phraya river. He was speaking something to me in Thai and all I could do was say 'Mai Kao Chai' - I don't understand! I believe he was trying to tell me that he had to take another route. At first I couldn't understand why he was going to the other side of the river and I was thinking - oh oh, I hope there wasn't another place by the same name somewhere far away.

When the cab took a U-turn on the other side, I breath a sigh of relief because I understood the driver's intention to avoid the jam previously. We passed by an extremely beautifully lit road where all the trees alongside the road were heavily lit with light bulbs. It was pretty much like Christmas trees. I had no idea where this place was but I believed it was somewhere near the King's residence because there were guards around the walls near the road. We also passed by the Dusit zoo because I saw the painted murals of animals. When I came back, I checked the Bangkok map and the area which I mentioned where the heavily illuminated road was - is the Chitrlada Palace - the permanent residence of the King. And so, I guess I'm pretty lucky to have 'accidentally' visited this site at night nearing the King's birthday! My travelling luck seems still intact...

You may be wondering whether I'm travelling alone again. You are right. It's just that I am the only one who's got an extreme bad case of itchy legs and I just love 'feeding' my eyes with things I'd never seen before. I am at peace when I travel. My colleagues are not that enthusiastic as I am. Some of my colleagues are more interested in the night scenes like pubs and discos; wine and dine; or shopping. I'm not in these categories - so like it or not, I had to venture out on my own.

Regards,
Li Li