Phetchaburi

We only decided to stop in Phetchaburi on a bit of a coin toss, there were three towns jostling for the position of 'place to stop on the way to Bangkok' and we found accommodation in Phetchaburi first.

What a stroke of luck!

The town will forever go down in Matt and Aimee history as the place where Aimee stopped loving monkeys. The town was overrun with the hairy vagabonds and eerily like a scene from Planet of the Apes. Even a simple task like buying a bottle of water from the local 7 Eleven meant running the gauntlet of hairy thieves eyeing you up ready to snatch your belongings at any moment, It was even worse than Los Angeles!

The Khao Wang National Park more than made up for this however. After a short but steep tram ride up the mountain we followed the winding cobbled paths up to King Mongkut Palace. The impressively airy palace provided us with a spectacular panoramic view of the city while the building itself was modestly grand. Down another cobbled path through ancient looking gardens we arrived at Phra Nakhon Khiri Palace where we found yet more cheeky monkeys making a play for our belongings!

At the palace we were able to climb the stairs to the top of the stupa and again we were awarded a fantastic view of the Wat sprinkled skyline.

Before we knew it our time in Phetchaburi was over and we headed for Bangkok to meet up with Matt's brother. After watching the flood reports on the news we headed to the coach station with some trepidation, would there be any buses heading that way?