Sitting here now watching the ocean below my bungalow in Koh Chang, Thailand, near the Cambodian border, it was not just a few minutes ago a monkey crawled between the layers of roofing about 5 feet away from me and curiously stared down to see if there was something for him of interest.
When you go to the zoo and you see all the cute monkeys, they are cute. But remember they are behind bars. Here in Koh Chang monkeys are known for their true reputation in the wild. They are looking for food and they are looking for fun. But you have to remember that the food they are looking for is your food. If you feed the monkeys they will continue to look for your food and become more aggressive as you try to hide your food from the monkeys. If you are sharing with them they will increasingly think what is yours is also theirs. And that is why, wherever there are monkeys in open areas, there are generally signs near monkey visiting areas saying not to feed the monkeys. They can get aggressive when they increasingly assume what is yours belongs to them as well.
I am now the only customer in this bungalow and the owner is away in another city visiting family so I am kind of a semi caretaker of the place as well. My room is right over the water and it’s difficult getting in on the evening high tide because the water and the waves are about chest level. But we rebuilt London bridge across to the other bungalow building where the bar is so I can get in and out during high tide.
But the last few days the monkeys see fewer people around and they decide to come and investigate. They will take anything that’s easy for them to grab onto, to move and throw around or steal. When I saw that little visiting monkeys staring down at me I dared not go downstairs to get another cup of coffee and leave my iPad on the table. It would probably end up using the monkey jungle Internet. In this video you can see how the younger ones tried to distract me while the older one plotted to come up to my table from underneath and steal the bag with trash and a 5 day old piece of bread.
Quite a few of my friends visiting Sri Lanka told me about all the different places with monkeys around. One fellow here who frequents the bar next-door says some monkeys carry rabies. I don’t know if that’s true or not but I certainly don’t want to find out. I’ve been through rabies treatment before. It’s not unpleasant as it was back in the 50s. It’s just a series of shots (either the German or French series). But everyone here warns monkeys will bite when they feel they need to or want to (I don’t know much about monkeys). After hearing the stories of what mayhem the monkeys can cause, especially if you leave your room open, I have become a great fan of shooing them away.
Anyway, just be careful around monkeys. The ones in the wild are wild. They are looking after their own interests and are certainly not looking to become pets.