Sunflower Paradise & Monkey Mayhem

I love sunflowers.

They're my absolute favorite flower. It's probably because I have fond memories with sunflowers. When I was about 8 years old my grandparents planted sunflower seeds and gave me one of the small plants. My mom and I then planted it in our front yard; it became my own little special project. I remember it was so fun to watch the sunflower grow...and grow...and grow. We had no idea it would grow to be so tall! To be honest, we didn't seem to do anything special for it. I became quite popular on my street as every neighbor would comment on my sunflower nearly three times my height.

When I heard my Thai coworker Job talking about her recent trip the sunflower fields in a nearby province of Thailand, I knew I had to go. She warned me it wasn't a tourist destination and would be extremely difficult to get to without a car. I didn't care; I had to go. I read online that sunflowers are only in bloom for a short period of time with the month of December being the best time to visit. I had to go soon!

A friend of mine from Bangkok was visiting for the weekend so I managed to convince her to take a journey into the unknown land of sunflowers with me. I warned her it probably wouldn't be easy to find the fields, but luckily she was keen for an adventure.

We took the local train from Ayutthaya to the city of Lopburi and decided to figure it out from there. Lopburi is well-known in Thailand for its population of almost 1,000 wild monkeys that roam the town. However, after only 5 minutes in Lopburi, it was very clear to me that these wild monkeys don't just run around the town, they literally run this town. They roam the streets wreaking havoc wherever they go: swinging from electrical power lines, dodging traffic and moving cars, jumping on unsuspecting tourists with bags of food, stealing hats and sunglasses, chewing holes through banners, advertisements, and anything else they can get their greedy hands on. I actually saw a group of them running up a shop's awning and then sliding down, repeating the process over and over again like a bunch of kids. Basically, these wild monkeys live the monkey kingdom life of luxury in the middle of the city. I personally was not a big fan of these most-likely- disease-infested-crazy-monkeys and was terrified one would jump on me. They also move pretty darn quick. Unfortunately, the streets of Lopburi are completely covered in trash and wrappers because of all the food the monkeys are fed or steal from garbage bins and tourists.

Phtoto credit: Mathias Connelly

Photo credit: Mathias Connelly 

From my understanding, the monkey god, Hanuman, is revered in Lopburi, so instead of chasing the primates away treating them like nuisances, the local Thai people pretty much let them rule the place. They even provide food to eat and once a year there is a full banquet held just for the monkeys. Most are found hanging out around Phra Prang Sam Yot, also nicknamed The Monkey Temple. Included with your 50 baht entrance fee is a long bamboo stick as your means of self defense from the monkeys.

Photo credit: Mathias Connelly

I had about enough of the monkeys so it was time to find the sunflower fields. However, we had a small problem... Lopburi didn't really have any tuk-tuks or transporation available to get around like we assumed. We walked around for a while trying to figure out how we could possibly ask a local to explain how to get to the sunflower fields with our limited Thai vocabulary. Just as this was happening, we coincidentally ran into my Thai friend Ice and her boyfriend who also live in Ayutthaya on the street next to mine. They apparently had also decided to take a day trip to Lopburi that day. We explained the situation and Ice quickly started asking around to the locals and within about 3 minutes had arranged us a ride to the sunflower fields and back. Hallelujah!

The journey was about a 45 minute drive outside the city, but boy was it worth it. When we turned down the street, I was in complete aw. It was breathtaking! On both sides, as far as the eye could see was field after field after field of sunflowers that seemed to stretch on forever. A profusion of bright yellow flowers covered the field under a clear blue sky with a perfect backdrop of majestic mountains. It felt truly unreal.

I think I found paradise. Sunflower paradise.