Lopburi is Lucky

They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. But that adage doesn’t always apply to travel.

Mostly because I didn’t really know where I was heading, I ended up spending a dandy day at Wat Khao Wong Phrachan in Lopburi province. I never would have never found (or even attempted) the place had I brought a guidebook along.

Most people go to Lopburi, about three hours north of Bangkok by train, to see the monkeys. The Khmer-style ruins in the center of town are crawling with the tame little critters. Before I left home, I glanced at a Lopburi website, which briefly listed a temple about 25 kilometers from the city, “surrounded by shady trees and beautiful views of nature,” near the province’s highest mountain.

What the site didn’t say was that “near” the mountain really means “at the top of a flight of about 3,000 steps.” Even after hopping off a local bus and riding the final few kilometers by motorcycle taxi, I still didn’t realize that visiting the temple would involve any climbing. At right is the view looking back from the halfway mark.

Luckily some entrepreneurs sell water along the way. The mountain was one of those whose summit looks closer than it really is. See for yourself: can you spot the temple up top in this picture? Happily, the 360-degree view, and the pleasant breeze, was a fine reward for the sweat required to reach the highest point.

And when I finally got back to the main road, it turned out that my motorcycle man doubled as a seller of banana fritters, making the unplanned day that much sweeter.