November 24

Well another beautiful day in Thailand. Was picked up by Mr.Beer and Mr. A in the van we have rented for 6 days on our wanderlust journey into northern Thailand. Mr. Beer is from Chaing Mai and 24 years old and in business for himself, touring and driving. Mr. A is the relief driver and owns the van. They are both very nice and fun to be with.

We left in a blaze of dust and proceeded out of BKK north through some heavy traffic and out to the main highway. Going north our first stop was Lopburi, the home of the monkey temples. Young, small, large and medium monkeys all over the temple we had to watch the camera, eyeglasses and cell phones because the little buggers would snatch anything they could grip and run with. Some pregnant ones and many, many babies. Also there were ruins left by the Khmer (Cambodian) people from the 13th century. Rather fouled smell from the monkey business but very small in comparison with the Angkor Wat temples.

We had a nice lunch in a small open-air restaurant and received a phone call from Jonard in the Philippines. Nice to hear from him. He is again requesting a Visa for the US on Nov 29 but if he doesn’t get it he will just go to plan B and continue to with his new company, be trained there for six months and then automatically get a work visa for Los Angeles, ( This is our 24 year old friend with an engineering degree from Manila). Has been dreaming of working in the USA and now has an opportunity.) He is very bright and will soon have his dream come true.)

After lunch we starting heading out of town but had some motor trouble (overheating and had to kill some time in the local mall shopping and have some ice cream drinks.
The time went quickly and we were on the road again.