Lopburi is the capital city of Lopburi Province in Central Thailand. Lopburi is littered with historic ruins, and the city made global headlines when it was overrun by monkeys.
The city is on the Northern Line that connects Bangkok and Chiang Mai. A new train station was built outside the city in 2025, so I figured it was time for a revisit.
These are my notes from my visit in December 2025.
A tale of two train stations
[Lopburi Railway Station]
Lopburi railway station is in the middle of the city, so it’s an easy destination to visit by train. The trains run at street level, so the State Railway of Thailand decided to build another station on a new bypass line.
The new station is about 8 km from the city centre, and I timed my trip to visit just after the station opened in December 2025. The bypass is a 19 km elevated railway that looks like something that would be built for a high-speed railway. This is still a metre-gauge railway with diesel-engine trains.
[Lopburi 2 Railway Station]
The absurd thing about this bypass is that some trains still run through Lopburi. The express trains between Bangkok and Chiang Mai now run via the bypass, while local trains still go to the old station.
I was surprised that so much was spent on this bypass, but still have trains running through Lopburi. I was also disappointed to discover that this is not built to serve a future high-speed railway (if it ever got built). I wrote about this topic in Thailand’s mediocre master plan for rail development.
The new station is inconvenient, but at least the SRT operate a free shuttle service between Lopburi 2 Station and Lopburi Station.
[Free shuttle from Lopburi Station to Lopburi 2 Station.]
City of ruins
One of the appealing aspects of Lopburi is that the train deposits you in the middle of the action. As soon as you step out of the station, you can see the ruins of Wat Phrasi Rattana Mahathat.
[Wat Phrasi Rattana Mahathat, opposite the train station.]
There is no way that a modern railway would be allowed to be built next to such a historic site, so I wouldn’t be surprised if all trains eventually stop running through the city.
[Rail crossing next to Phra Prang Sam Yot]
Lopburi was the capital of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in the mid-17th century, and there are also ruins from when Lopburi was part of the Angkor Empire.
In addition to the ruins in parks with admission fees, there are ruins that are open at all hours.
[Wat Nakorn Kosa]
Some ruins are so ruined that they have almost blended into the streetscape.
[Wat Ratcha.]
More abundant than the ruins are the monkey murals that can be found around the city.
[Monkey mural at Wat Indra]
Monkey Town
Lopburi became famous for its long-tailed macaques that freely roamed the streets. My defining memory of my last visit in 2008 was of being cautious of these monkeys, and it apparently got worse after that.
An annual Monkey Buffet Festival is held at the end of November, but by 2024, the monkey population had got so out of control that they started removing them from the city. This Reuters photo essay gives you an idea of the monkey mania that gripped Lopburi.
I arrived in Lopburi a year after this special operation, and I saw more monkey murals than monkeys.
If you had never been to Lopburi and didn’t know about the monkey situation, you might wonder why there were so many “Beware of the Monkeys” signs everywhere.
Monkeys have become the unofficial mascot of the city.
[Monkey street plate at Phra Prang Sam Yot]
I finally got a glimpse of a monkey at Phra Prang Sam Yot, but Lopburi in 2025 was nothing like pre-2024 Lopburi, when tribes of monkeys roamed the streets seeking treats as tribute from tourists.
[My first monkey sighting at Phra Prang Sam Yot.]
This monkey-themed cafe set in a dilapidated shophouse would have felt like a 12 Monkeys dystopia when monkeys were freely roaming the streets.
Seeing all these cute monkey murals everywhere almost made me miss them, but they became a big problem in the end.
Since my visit, it was reported that nearly 100 monkeys escaped from a municipal animal enclosure in Lopburi, so maybe the monkeys will retake their city in the future.
Where have all the overlanders gone?
Getting the train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai is a great way to experience the historic cities of Central Thailand. From Bangkok, you can visit Ayutthaya, Lopburi, and Phitsanulok (for Sukhothai) with relative ease.
Some of the trains between Bangkok and Ayutthaya stop at Don Mueang Airport, which was the main airport of Bangkok before Suvarnabhumi Airport opened in 2006.
There was a time when backpackers would arrive at Don Mueang and get the train straight to Ayutthaya (if they weren’t going to the old backpacker neighbourhood of Bangkok).
My last visit to Lopburi was in 2008, and I met overland travellers on that trip. On this 2025 trip, I was there for two nights, and I hardly saw any foreign tourists.
I was thinking about this when I saw Noom Guesthouse. This is a typical guesthouse that used to fill the pages of Lonely Planet.
The guesthouse has dorms and private rooms, and they have information on things to do in the area.
I think this street was the main guesthouse street back in the day. Unfortunately, I didn’t blog about my trip, so I don’t remember much. What I do remember is that on that trip, I used Lonely Planet to find places to stay, and I didn’t prebook any guesthouses.
On this 2025 trip, I ended up staying near Noom at Nett Hotel Lopburi.
I don’t remember where I stayed in 2008, but I realised that I probably stayed here because I remember seeing this Please Don’t Feed The Monkey sign.
The hotel doesn’t look like it has changed in the 17 years since my last visit, and it probably hasn’t in 17 years since my first visit. This added to my feeling of nostalgia for a bygone travel era.
So there are not many guesthouses left in the old town (if there were that many to begin with), which had me wondering what happened to the art of overland travel.
I know that tastes change, and low-cost airlines have reconfigured the banana pancake trail in Southeast Asia. Some overland routes are too much of a grind for the modern traveller, such as the Bukit Lawang-Medan-Lake Toba-Bukittinggi circuit in Sumatra. I credit that overland trip for getting me interested in railway development in Southeast Asia, when I Googled “is there a plan for a train in Sumatra” after a gruelling overnight bus trip. It’s hard to sell an 18-hour bus trip when most people just want to fly to Bali and sit by a pool.
The Northern Line to Chiang Mai, though, is anything but gruelling. Sure, it’s slow by modern standards, and Thailand should really be building a high-speed railway between Bangkok and Chiang Mai. For the casual visitor, the Northern Line is an ideal travel adventure. It’s Overlanding 101 For Babies.
You can get the train at sensible hours in the daytime, and break up the trip into short sections (Train 7 from Bangkok to Chiang Mai runs in daytime hours). You can then add some variety to your travel experience by getting the sleeper train from Chiang Mai on the return journey.
Lopburi makes for a good stop for a day to check out some ruins and to experience a provincial night market.
[Walking Street Lopburi]
Train to Bangkok
After getting the train to the new station, I wanted to depart from the old station for old-time’s sake. I got the commuter train to Bangkok, where you just buy a ticket on the day of travel, and the seats are hard benches. The bonus of the commuter train is that it still goes to Hua Lamphong Station (and not Krung Thep Aphiwat Central Terminal).
[Train 304 at Lopburi.]
Here is my review of the Lop Buri to Bangkok commuter train.
I have been to Lop Buri many times. I am amazed at the unnecessary expenditure on the by pass what Thailand needs is not mad schemes like this (meter gauge) but new trains, the station at the southern end of the line is an example massive station but no trains stop there
All of the trains between Lop Buri and Ayutthaya stop at Don Muang airport
I have to say I do not recognise walking street, the night market along the railway line is the one I use and on Wednesday nights there is a market along the street next to Nooms. LopBuri has never really been a guesthouse /hostel scene and is(and was) mainly served by the older Thai hotels like Nett and Noom has been the only place to attract the Farangs
One of the great things about Lopburi over Ayutthaya is that the old town is very compact and easy to walk around