ORIGINAL: Jarhead0331 I get suspicious anytime westerners visit or reside in Thailand...there is really only one reason to be there.

ORIGINAL: bogaty I'm here for the scuba.

Monkeys' Banquet    Imagine being in the middle of a party for a hundred children so high on sugar you can see them vibrating. Multiply the chaos factor by ten, compress the event into a few short minutes, throw in a bunch of snap-happy tourists and you have some idea of the scene at the annual Monkey's Banquet. The banquet takes place at Lop Buri, a small town of just 40,000 residents 90km from Bangkok. It's a brief affair, long on frenzy and short on table manners, but there's no denying it's a nosh-up of epicurean proportions for the monkeys. We're not just talking peanuts here. Chefs and serving staff work feverishly to prepare a range of vegetarian delicacies like [i]thang yod[/i] (a Thai sweet), pumpkin, sticky rice and tropical fruit salads. On the day of the banquet, invitations are attached to the sides of cashew nuts and distributed amongst the primate [i]hoi polloi[/i], the food is beautifully arranged on red-clothed tables, and small monkey-gifts (mirrors and toys) are placed among the dishes. Rumour has it that monkeys even catch the train up from the big smoke, Bangkok, for the day. The first unfashionably early monkeys tend to be a bit publicity-shy, but once the numbers pick up, the simian [i]grande bouffe[/i] begins. Food is thrown, monumental hissy-fits are had, puddings are sat upon, soda is guzzled, table-tops are danced on, and tidbits are stolen out of hand. For a brief few minutes it's a screeching cacophany of macaques and flying food, with spectators often bearing the brunt of this Lob-A-Yod game. Once the food had been accounted for, in one way or another, the guests slink off to the treetops for a post-prandial nap-and-natter. The folk of Lop Buri, many of whom are Buddhists, have an inbuilt tolerance for their hairier residents even though the macaques are known for their light-fingered ways, in-your-face antics and scam-a-man hustle. Other countries are more inclined to lunch upon than commune with their simian community, but Yonguth Kijwattananuson, who has been arranging the slap-up swing-around banquets since 1988, says the monkeys have added character and colour to the town, and they are duly honoured on this one day of the year.

           And happy Loy Krathong to everyone here!