Lopburi Old Town

Lopburi is one of the oldest continuously occupied towns in Thailand, and its layers sit on top of each other without much ceremony. Khmer builders left Prang Sam Yot, three linked laterite towers now standing on a traffic island, and the ruined prang of Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat faces the railway station across a strip of grass. In the 1660s King Narai made the town his second capital and built a walled palace here, along with a residence for his Greek-born official Constantine Phaulkon, whose brick shell still stands. The macaques are the other constant: several hundred of them, living on the monuments and running the streets around them.

What you actually see

• Prang Sam Yot - three joined Khmer laterite towers in the middle of town.
• Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat - a ruined prang and chedi field opposite the station.
• Phra Narai Ratchaniwet - the walled seventeenth-century palace and its brick halls.
• Ban Wichayen - the roofless residence built for Narai's Greek-born minister.

When to go

November to February is dry and cooler. The town works well as a day trip by train from Bangkok or a stop on the way north, and everything worth seeing sits within a walkable square. A monkey festival is held at the end of November, when tables of fruit are laid out for the macaques and the crowds are large.

Honest expectations

The macaques are not charming at close range. They snatch bags, sunglasses, water bottles and food, they bite occasionally, and whole streets are strung with wire and netting to keep them out. Leave anything loose at the hotel. Beyond the monuments the town is ordinary, hot and traffic-heavy, and the ruins themselves are modest.

Nearby

Ayutthaya to the south and the sunflower fields of Lopburi province in winter.