Monkey Town

Last week my friend Monica said, “Do you want to go see the monkeys this weekend?” Because we had recently been talking about going to hear the Thai Beatles, my brain was in music mode. I found myself thinking the Monkees are still alive…together…and touring? It took me a minute to switch gears and realize she was talking about the Monkey Festival in Lopburi. For those of you who watched “The Amazing Race” when the hippies came to Thailand, this was one of the towns featured on that episode.

In Lopburi, the monkeys have free reign. Apparently, they were given as a gift to the town some time ago and have never left. Because these creatures bring tourism to the small town, which also boasts several old Khmer ruins, the people offer a feast for the monkeys once a year. People bring food as an offer of thanks to the monkeys for the prosperity they bring to the town.

I was traveling with some serious back-packing children of authentic hippies. We rode a bus out to the town ($2.70) Saturday afternoon so that we could be there early for the festivities on Sunday. I was up before the sun this morning. Part of this was due to the fact that I had rented a room in a hotel for $4. And let me tell you, I didn’t get a penny over $4 worth of comfort. The left bottom corner of the door and the door jamb had serious water rot from the adjacent squatter toilet/bathroom. There was a measly ceiling fan that made a horrendous noise and did little to stir the air. If I had paid $10, I could have had an air conditioner and toilet paper, but payday was still five days away. At least the only bugs were these itty bitty little things I could easily brush off of my arm or squish on the bathroom sink.

I was out of that hovel and walking around by 7am. A cool morning walk through the quiet town. People were already out and setting up for the big day. I followed the music and easily found the Khmer temple with the three prangs which I had seen on television. I saw what I thought was a dog and I was reflecting that it had an odd tail for a dog. It was actually the first monkey I saw in town. After I had spotted my first one, there was no shortage thereafter. Wow. Monkeys, monkeys everywhere! On the telephone wires, stop sign, motorcycles, sidewalks, buildings—everywhere. For the most part they were just minding their own business: scratching themselves, foraging, grooming each other. I only had one monkey jump on me; I was taking a picture and not paying attention to what was behind me. A little critter jumped on my skirt and quickly jumped off when I whirled around and screamed. I’m glad that was early and there weren’t too many people about.

It was fun to just sit and watch them jump and climb all over. And these are some randy little fellows. They shed new light on the meaning of a quickie. Picture a female monkey minding her own business, sipping on a juice box, and a male monkey swings in from behind (in ‘n out, in ‘n out for about five to seven seconds) and then pops back out. Strange business on a Sunday morning.

I was glad that I had the opportunity to walk around early in the morning because once all the people came out to watch, the gated area was much too crowded. The food was set up beautifully but I left the temple before the monkeys really started to chow down. We rode home on an unconditioned train for $1. Upon arrival in Bangkok, I climbed into a very air conditioned taxi to take me home from the train station.

Back up a little…Saturday night when we arrived in Lopburi, we immediately took a makeshift vehicle (cross between a minibus and a small truck) out to a temple that had a bat cave. We drove up a small mountain and walked through a temple that was built into and around the mountain. We climbed some stairs and came out on the side of the mountain by a cave where we smelled serious bat funk and heard the high pitched whirring of thousands of bats. I walked into the mouth of the cave and saw them flitting about, preparing for the evening hunt. I would have walked further but there were what seemed like hundreds of cockroaches directly below all those bats (I wonder if there is a symbiotic relationship here?) Further reasoning for arresting my steps was that I was barefoot—you always take your shoes off when you walk into a temple.

The sun starts to set around 6pm here; it is dark every night by 6:30, year around. Like clockwork, the bats emerged from the cave at 6pm. There were so many it looked like the mountain was just spewing them out in a poltergeist fashion. Thousands of bats. The high pitched crying which accompanied them never ceased. A steady stream of hungry bats flying out into the valley. We watched for nearly ten minutes and there were still hordes of bats emerging into the new night. By that time, we couldn’t take the smell any more and we headed back down to town.

I think that will be it for my animal adventures for a while. I’m feeling the need to morph into a gym rat myself.