Bangkok Coup & Wild Monkeys

It seems that news travels faster internationally than it does in Thailand. We are in a little town about 45 minutes outside Bangkok and hadn't heard a word about the coup until we logged online this evening and saw it posted on MSN. To be honest, absolutely everything seems normal here. We did notice that the power was out yesterday until 4pm, but that isn't so odd here. We also watched a little television last evening. We were disapointed that there wern't any international stations, but didn't realize that it was something unusual. (It was the first time we have had a television in our room). We did see the programs about the king (i.e. pretty images with music). It seemed in-keeping with the general presence of the royal family here. The king's picture is on every street corner and in front of every business in every town. We have seen no signs of the army, no tanks and nobody seems to be alarmed at all. The night markets are open, the women are doing aerobics in the town couryard's, and the kids are riding their bikes around.

We spent the afternoon visiting some of the ruins in this town. They are as old as Ankor in Cambodia (1100 AD) and just as spectacular! What makes these ruins especially interesting is the monkeys who have adopted them as their homes. It is no exageration to say that the monkeys have taken over this town. They are walking along the powerlines and atop the near-by buildings and there are literally hundreds of them! We got some amazing video of the little guys. It seems that the females and the babies stay nearest the ruins (its protected by a fence from the road) and there was no shortage of tiny, brand-new monkeys. They were so cute! They are all quite curious and will come right up to you if you let them. The young males are the most daring. At one point I had one swinging from my pony-tail! We managed to keep them at bay with a bamboo "monkey stick" that the park officer gave us with our entry fee. We decided that we would like to stay here for another night. Its much nicer than Bangkok and with the current events may also be a bit better. We promise to be careful as we travel, we fly to India on Saturday, but want you all to know that things are very calm here so don't worry too much. The news always shows the most sensational images they can find.