• Thailand Guide

  • Introduction to Thailand
  • Weather
  • Things Not to Miss
  • Getting around
  • Money
  • Public holidays
  • Entry requirements

• Explore Thailand

  • The central plains
  • The north
  • The east coast
  • The northeast: Isaan
  • Southern Thailand: the Gulf coast
  • Southern Thailand: the Andaman coast
  • The deep south

• Cities

  • Bangkok
    
  • Chiang Mai
    
  • Chiang Rai
    
  • Chumphon
    
  • Hat Yai
    
  • Kamphaeng Phet
    
  • Nakhon Si Thammarat
    
  • Pattaya
    
  • Phitsanulok
    
  • Surat Thani
    

Thailand Guide

The central plains

Lopburi

• Accommodation

Mention the name Lopburi to a Thai and the chances are that he or she will start telling you about monkeys – the central junction of this unexceptional provincial capital, 150km due north of Bangkok, swarms with macaques. So beneficial are the beasts to the town's tourist trade that a local hotelier treats six hundred of them to a sit-down meal at Phra Prang Sam Yod temple every November, complete with menus, waiters and napkins, as a thank you for their help.

In fact, the monkeys can be a real nuisance, but at least they add some life to the town's central Khmer buildings, which, though historically important, are rather unimpressive. More illuminating is the Narai National Museum, housed in a partly reconstructed seventeenth-century palace complex, and distant Wat Phra Phutthabat, a colourful eye-opener for non-Buddhists.

Lopburi's main festival is the five-day King Narai Reign Fair in February, to commemorate the seventeenth-century king's birthday, featuring costumed processions, cultural performances, traditional markets and a son et lumière show at Phra Narai Ratchanivet.