Trip To Thailand - 4/28

4/28, Thurs. – Monkey Mountain, Plearn Wan

In the morning we took a taxi to visit what the locals were referring to as “Monkey Mountain” (MAP). It isn't a mountain, rather a rocky hill right on the coast. But it does have lots of monkeys. This hill has two Buddhist monasteries on it. The Monks and the faithful visitors feed the monkeys. There are a lot there. The monkeys were mostly friendly, but one did come and steal the id badge off of our stroller. The baby monkeys were fun to see. While there we climbed the steep stairs to the Buddhist temple at the top. After giving alms and praying, we walked around the top and rang the bells. As the day was very hot, we quickly packed up and headed back to town for lunch.

If you look closely, you'll see the Monkeys sitting on the rock to the left of Grandma's glasses.

The stairs up to the temple were quite steep. It was a very hot day.

We went to the Market Village mall for lunch (MAP). While there Kaler played on some big toys and Lena took a short nap. As taxis and tuk-tuks were overpriced, we found that by taking songthaew pickup-taxi which operate on regular routes, we could get a better deal to get around town. We took the songtaew to Plearn Wan. On the way we had to detour because of a parade in progress in town.

On the way home we stopped at Plearn Wan (เพลินวาน) (MAP). The translation of the Thai plearn means 'enjoy' and wan means 'yesteryear'. This is a an attempt to re-create a vintage Thai commercial community. There are several web sites that capture the essence of what is going on. Web Site 1, Web Site 2. We walked around and looked at the shops and took pictures. As it was getting late and the kids needed naps, we left after a short visit.

Lena, Natty, and Grandma at Plearn Wan.