Ayutthaya & Lopburi

In August we got to celebrate the Queen Mother's Birthday in Thailand and were given the day off - it fell on a Wednesday.  Joe, our friend Frieda and I went to Ayutthaya and Lopburi.  Both used to be the capital of Thailand at some point.  Ayutthaya features some ruins, a pagoda and a temple.  Lopburi was our favorite and it had a pagoda with hundreds of monkey's running wild around it.  Actually the monkeys roam wild in the streets - you will see ten or so of them crossing the street at the same time running up a pole onto a roof top.  We were educated prior to our trip to be sure to not walk around with anything on us that we don't mind losing.  The monkeys will strip you clean of your belongings - they'll take the hat or sunglasses off your head, take things out of your pockets and bags out of your hands.  We were even told that they monkey's know how to unzip purses and will go in your purse and take out whatever they can.  We actually witnessed a woman carrying a small plastic bag with some meat on a stick that she bought at a street vender and the monkey leaped through the air at her, grabbed the bag of food, took off and dumped it on the ground and started chowing down on it.  This day trip was our first experience driving outside of Bangkok in our car.  We do not drive much here and only use our car for getting out of Bangkok.  It was located about one and a half hours outside of Bangkok and was a nice day trip.  Enjoy the pics!