Photos by Sydney photographer Daniel Boud
I love monkeys. How can you not love monkeys? If you don’t like monkeys you must have no soul, they’re like our cute little hairy cousins. Anyway, while i was traveling in Thailand i was hoping to see some monkeys and thankfully i did, albeit briefly. There was the family of monkeys way over in the distance while i was on a boat, there was the monkey that crawled over my head and there was the town i went through on the train that was overrun by monkeys. Unfortunately i didn’t stop at this place, called Lopburi aka Monkey City, but as i passed by it looked like a scene from Planet of the Apes. The streets were filled with monkeys, more monkeys than humans. They’d taken over.
On a related note, these monkey portraits are just so cool. My favourite is this haughty fella.
“did you see or touch any monkeys?”
If you want some monkey action on the way up a really monkey magic-esque mountain….visit Emei-shan in Sichuan Province, China. Macaques everywhere in what the locals call ‘the joking monkey zone’ – the track is a log-walk and reminded me of Donkey Kong. Well worth it at the top of Emeishan, I thought Monkey & Pigsy were going to appear from a nearby cloud.
Elmo, is that a Survivor reference??
Nicole, that place in China sounds cool. If i’m ever in that part of the world i’ll give it a visit.
A word of advice from SanDiego Zoo:
“Grinning, or pulling the lip up to show the teeth, may seem like a smile to us. But for monkeys this is a sign of aggression or anger, because biting is one way monkeys fight and defend themselves. Other signs of aggression include head bobbing, yawning (again, to show the teeth), and jerking the head and shoulders forward.”
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-monkey.html
It might be worth learning some Gorilla Etiquette as well
http://www.gorilla-haven.org/ghetiquette.htm
Some monkeys are dangerous! When I was in Jaipur (India) there were these BIG monkeys that would jump around the palace and make a LOT of noise, it was rather intimidating. Some have apparently been trained to steal your wallet! But thankfully we didn’t experience any of that!
dammit, I love monkeys. I remember saying the night before the wedding everything would be perfect if I had a monkey turn up the next day. It would of made my day, alas it wasn’t to be.
As for the freaky portraits this one speaks to me on so many levels:
http://www.manipulator.com/website/monkey/html/bambam.html
that last monkey photo you linked to is hysterical.
i expect that’s exactly how the supreme leader of our simian forefathers looked.
this monkey post triggered my memory of something i saw in japan. check my blog, i’ve posted the pic.