Our last excursion today.
We both woke up starvin' marvin this morning so filled up on a breakfast of chicken sausages, waffles, cereal, potatoes, sea bass (Simon), guava juice and iced coffee. Delicioso!
We were collected from our hotel and driven to the province above ours, Phetchaburi (we are in Prachuap Khiri Khan). Our first stop was a small local temple. It isn't a tourist spot, our group were the only Caucasians there, so it was really lush to see a temple being a temple, not a theme park. There were traditional offerings for Buddha outside... When you pray to Buddha and everything turns out ok, you give him an offering... There were baskets piled high with eggs, full on cooked meals with loads of little dishes, figurines of dance shows, flowers and more. We walked through a thai cemetery for the 'wery, wery VIPs' they're statues of Buddha with a loose tile underneath that the person's ashes get put into. Families add to them for generations... Not sure how it works when they get full up?!?
There was also a school at the temple for all the local children, we had a wander through the grounds and could see them all working hard in their classrooms. It was lovely to see them all in their little uniforms, smiling and really happy to be in school. As we walked back, we had drawn a little bit of attention from one of the classes so I smiled and waved at the little group that were looking. I was greeted back with MASSIVE smiles and big waves from loads of them. When I kept waving a couple started giggling. It was very cute. I wanted to go into their classroom and sit with them for a bit, but wasn't sure if we were allowed.
Our next stop was another cave atop a mountain. We pulled up the road and it was jam packed with monkeys. Long tailed macaques. Big ones, teeny tiny babies, just wandering around. We pulled up in the car park and walked across to the entrance steps... There were hundreds (probably tens, but it seemed a lot more at the time) of monkeys blocking our path and we just had to walk through them. Eeeeeeeeek!!! Our guide had told us not to make eye contact with them or they will follow you. It was really tricky not to look at them, but I know how cheeky primates can be and I definitely didn't want our stuff to end up at the top of a tree on a monkey's head, so I refused to look at their little eyes. As we were walking up, Simon was walking quite close to one and I could see the monkey eyeing up the backpack so I just pulled Simon to one side before he could jump on for a free ride!! Lol.
We walked down some more steep, uneven steps to the inside of another cave. A completely stunning sight was waiting for us. We both audibly gasped. We were free to have a look around and as the walk was much easier than Sam Roi Yod, it was much more enjoyable... Aside from the occasional bat flying overhead!
We walked back up 100 crazy Thai steps in the insane heat. I would have paused more if it wasn't for the monkeys!! They were a good motivator!
Back on the bus again for our next stop; Phetchaburi Palace. We took a funicular rail up to the top of the mountain. Thais call them cable cars 'in English you say fa.ni.cyoo.lah but too hard for me. Cay.bul.ka!' At the top there was a sign 'BEWARE MONKEYS ATTACKS' aaaaaarrrrgh! Luckily it was far too hot up there so we didn't see any. It was amazing up there. We'll tell you all about it in a couple of days.
This evening we've been back to the night market for more amazing seafood, cocktails (not sure if it's their measures or the heat but they go to your head a lot quicker than at home) and rotee. We're back nice and early so we can be up and making the most of our final day tomorrow.
We're really sad to be leaving but we've had such an amazing time, that we've decided we'll definitely be back one day.
Lots of love to you all and see you soon!! xxx