tabla and monkeys

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We have taken to eating our breakfast on the roof of a local hotel, where we stayed at first. The staff are really friendly and we can watch the boats go by on the ganges, and parrots and monkeys in the trees. All very nice. Until yesterday - a monkey came up to us really suddenly and bared it's teeth at me and lunged at me! i made some pathetic batting it away motion and it moved back but came at me again so I'm afraid to say I let out a bit of a scream! but it was quite terrifying actually - the thought of a monkey tearing chunks of flesh out of my hand urgh! Luckily, bob was there to jump up menacingly at it, and the restaurant staff ran over with sticks so it didnt come back, but it has reminded me why I was mistrustful of the little blighters in the first place. Ever since I was attacked by a band of 20 of them in the rainforest in indonesia 11 years ago!
But thankfully, that was shortlived. Now we are learning music, and boy are our lessons intense! bob is learning sitar, and I am learning tabla. My teacher is really nice and has a good sense of humour, but when I went for my 2nd lesson today, he said "you dont practise enough! to me it sounds fine but you are not happy because you should be practising at least 2 hours every day!" wowzers. But, that is fine by me, I can already tell I"ve learnt more than I thought would be possible in such a short space of time, and am now considering buying some to send home.
Bob's still ill, but then he's trusting antibiotics, which I avoid as much as possible! my white stone treatment seems to have pretty much done the trick though so hurrah for trusting strange men in tiny chai shops.

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Comments

[Annie]

Crikey
Hello Watto and Bob. How great it sounds to eat breakfast atop a hotel with a teethy monkey! I can just imagine the 'pathetic batting' scenario. Very funny. Music lessons sound great! Keep it all up. What's a tabla? Annie x

[Bryony]

Hellooo!
Hello you two! Happy new year! We've just got back from Ireland which was slightly odd (we were in the most anti-English Irish-speaking bit) but not a patch on your experiences! We nearly got blown away in gale force winds....but it sounds like your wind is probably worse! Can Bob put any photos on the blog? Tabla lessons sounds brill, I've been working with quite a few asian musicians who are bloody amazing....but they do say it's a laborious undertaking to do it properly. Baggy havin you in my band when you get back! Have a fab time, hope the runs clear up and the monkeys stay away... Big love from Shat! xxxx

[Debbie]

First post
Hi Kate, Hope both you and Bob are fully recovered now. Enjoying your blog lots - It's a totally different world from rainy old Huddersfield. PS: Loved the piece in the Examiner! Love Debs x

[Poooooo]

Ooh, look at you learning tabla
Hello, I'm enjoying your tales - sounds like you're not just sitting about taking in the scenery:-) Weird to read about your monkey experiences today as I just had a similar (tho luckily, just the teeth barring, not the lunging) experience today! I'm in Thailand by the way, not new zealand yet - they don't have monkeys in new zealand! have fun and keep writing xx

[Watto]

thailand?
How long are you in thailand? why didnt you come through india instead? it sounds like everyone is having scary monkey experiences, you're best off in NZ i reckon! hey, did you know there's a womad there this year? and are you going to be keeping a blog too?