Monkey business Thai macaques overrun city as tourists stay away

Food vendors in the Thai city of Lopburi can never let down their guard.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe

Thieves are everywhere, nimble and brazen. “It’s almost every day that they take my mango and santol (cotton fruit),” says Pan Pookyoo, who has sold fruit on the streets of Lopburi for decades. “Sometimes they come and stash the peanuts,” she adds, gesturing to the vendor opposite, whose nuts and beans suffer frequent raids.

“They take anything they can,” agrees Somsaksri Janhon . Even his stall of hair accessories is not spared. “The comb, the mirror.” As he speaks, a brown tail dangles from the market’s metal roof .