More Monkey Business!

I was looking back through some photos this morning, and I realized that I left out a whole side trip we made in Thailand. We made this long, long day trip to Prachuap Khiri Khan about seventy-five kilometers South of our place in Hua Hin, with one goal in mind: finding the friendly dusky langurs on the military base there.

We found them!

We rode for several hours, and searched all over the military base (yes, they let the public all over an active military base there), and finally found them in a remote corner of the base, with almost no-one else around. We had the little guys all to ourselves after an annoying British couple left because there was no place to get bananas to share with the monkeys. We were super lucky that I found a big bunch of bananas laying in the grass that had been overlooked, so we were able to feed them (the monkeys, not the British couple).

If you have read the previous post about monkeys in Thailand, you will remember I spoke a bit about their predilection for public indecency and aggression, but this is an entirely different barrel of monkeys.

These little guys are just so friendly. They are really gentle taking bananas from you. We didn’t have a single aggressive episode between us and the monkeys, never saw them acting aggressively with each other, and never saw one single instance of public wanking.

I love this video. Tam is just so happy here. I just love the look of pure, unbridled joy on her face at the end. It makes the whole nine hours of sunburned, sore-ass motorbike ride completely worth it.

This little guy was such a clown, I just fell in love with him. He was full of mischief, and was just learning to jump and climb, so I could have watched him all day. He would not come all the way down to us to take a banana, but he seemed to love flirting with that safety boundary he had. So playful and funny.

This mother and baby was another one I enjoyed watching. She was so good at balancing the little guy, keeping him safe, but taking huge, breathtaking leaps to tiny little branches with him. I found myself getting a bit nervous at times while she was flying through the air, but every jump was full send and she stuck every landing.

I guess they are supposed to be dangerous?

They really are called Dusky Langurs, though.