Surrounded by thousands of long-tailed macaques, you would think I was standing in the middle of the jungle; however, I was eighty miles north of Bangkok in the town of Lopburi, Thailand.
As my wife, Lauren, and I arrived into the Lopburi train station, macaques jumped off the tracks to allow the train to pass—an immediate reminder that this is their territory. Just up the road from the station lies the Monkey Temple, which is the palace for the rulers of this town. Built in the early 13th century, this temple was originally dedicated to Hinduism, and then rededicated to Buddhism; but the macaques have always been a part of this iconic attraction. While this temple is still a site for prayer, it is now largely a tourist attraction. When entering the grounds of the temple, we had to be prepared for macaques to jump on our shoulders, and for them to try to steal anything we had. Following advice from the locals, spinning around in a circle got them off our backs, but that didn’t deter them for long. We watched as sunglasses were taken off people’s faces, jewellery pulled from bodies, and open pockets rummaged. Even though these scavengers are small, they can bite, which I learnt the hard way. After our visit we travelled to the local hospital where I had to start a month-long rabies treatment. In addition, as it was mating season for the macaques, I had to take twenty pills a day to prevent Macacine alphaherpesvirus 1, which is a kind of monkey herpes that is, while rare, extremely fatal to humans.
Despite the troubles, the experience was entertaining and enthralling. Fortunately, I survived to tell the tale of the Monkey Temple of Lopburi.
(Originally Published March 2021)
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Lopburi, Thailand - 2018
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