The Pattaya City Expats Club (PCEC) visited Chanthaburi and Lopburi at their Sunday, May 22, meeting. PCEC members Ren Lexander and Pasit Foobunma regaled the audience with stories and photos from tours organized recently by Pasit in his Tastes of Thailand series. These two tours encompassed two cities: The City of the Moon (Chanthaburi) and the City of Monkeys (Lopburi).
Ren Lexander is well known to the Club having given several presentations on various subjects. Pasit has organized and guided several excursions to interesting places in Thailand and Africa. He presently has volunteered to help organize trips for those that may be interested to Tanzania, Nepal, or Bhutan.
For their presentation Ren and Pasit showed photos and described the sights visited; first was the trip to Chanthaburi followed by the trip to Lopburi.
Chanthaburi is a Sanskrit word meaning “city of the moon.” There are many images of rabbits in Chanthaburi. This is because while Westerners tend to see the outline of a man when they look at a full moon, many Asians see a rabbit instead. Thus, there are rabbit images all over Chanthaburi.
Chanthaburi is home to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the largest Catholic church in Thailand. It started out as a chapel in 1711. It was enlarged and rebuilt four times during the 19th century, especially due to an influx of large numbers of Vietnamese Christians fleeing religious persecution. The tour included a visit to the National Maritime Museum and the Wat Chak Yai Buddha Park. The museum showcases a large collection of scale models of maritime vessels, primarily those used in Thailand for commerce including seafaring vessels.
The Wat Chak Yai Buddha Park tells the story of Buddha from his childhood. The park was founded in 1955 as a meditation centre. There are numerous statues in the park to remind people that Buddha also preached to animals.
Lopburi is known as the city of monkeys because it has a lot of, well, monkeys. You sort of get the idea when you see the welcome and numerous other signs when entering the city. To be precise, the monkeys are crab eating macaques and there are about 3,000 of them. They live in the middle of the city, especially around the Khmer temple, Phra Prang Sam Yot, and a Khmer shrine, Sarn Phra Kam. The monkeys are fed by local people, especially during the Monkey Festival in November. They are not afraid of humans and will steal whatever food or other items they can from unwary festivals.
One of the villages visited in Lopburi Province produces dinsophong, or mirl, a white chalky soil which has several uses, including as a cosmetic powder. The tour also included visits to several temples, King Narai Palace, and an aquarium. Participants also enjoyed the King Narai Fair, an annual event that was coincided with their visit.
After the presentation, MC Roy Albiston brought everyone up to date on club activities and happenings around Pattaya before calling on Ira Wettenstein to conduct the Open Forum, where questions are asked and answered about Expat living in Thailand, especially Pattaya.
For more information on the PCEC’s many activities, visit their website at www.pcecclub.org.
