Attacked By A Monkey!!

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We got up early yesterday, and by 7:30 we were heading down the mountain towards the river, with the intention of climbing the mountains on the other side to see a temple dedicated to Shiva. The guidebook told us it was a 7 kilometer walk, and that it should take 3 hours. Happily, we set off, skipping breakfast but already planning where to eat brunch when we returned. Seven hours later, tired, hungry, stroppy and sunburnt, we were still walking home. Having walked 16 kilometers, we had seen some spectacular views, climbed several Himalayan mountains, made it to the temple (which I was, unfortunately, not allowed to photograph - it might be the most impressive building I've ever seen in my life!), been adopted by two groups of Indians travelling to and from the temple, fed a handful of monkeys, and been terrorised and attacked by a ferocious male monkey who didn't want to let us pass without giving him some food. I recognise that Jason has described our predator as "a 40-pound vegetarian", but he had teeth (that he showed us) and claws, and I had already been scratched by a monkey further down the mountain that had aggressively stolen the food I was feeding it. So our encounter with "the boss", as the male head-of-the-pack monkeys are called by the men in the mountains, was truly terrifying. Thank god for the family that came and rescued us; by this point the monkey was tearing Jason's backpack apart with his teeth (having emptied the contents all over the road), and I have no doubt we would have been stranded there if our heroes hadn't happened to be so close behind. Jason had, incidentally, put his money belt (with passports and a large amount of money) and our guidebook in his bag only 20 minutes before, complaining it was too hot to keep the moneybelt so close to his skin, making our escape without the backpack absolutely impossible. Still, it makes for a hilarious anecdote now. Today has, in contrast, been a wasted day - Jason is completely exhausted, having slept for 18 of the last 24 hours, and I am sunburnt and eager to stay out of the sun. We were shocked to find over breakfast that we've been in Rishikesh for 5 days already, and had absolutely no idea what the date was, or even which day of the week it was. We're planning to get train tickets tomorrow, and to leave the day after that, at which point we will have spent an entire week here... definitely time to gather our stuff and head back to the road. We'll be going north again, and we've heard tell of freezing temperatures and snow (which sounds like heaven, compared to these 100-plus temperatures we've been living in), although the conflict in Kashmir, and the dangers of the border with Pakistan may prevent us from getting far enough north - we'll just have to wait and see what's in store for us. Meanwhile, it's onwards and upwards, and finally we've reached the point where three months isn't looking like its going to be nearly enough time!

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Photos

The Boss
This is the evil monkey that attacked us and stole Jason's backpack in the process of emptying the contents all over the road

Comments

[anonymous]

Apes are omnivores....more specifically the meat the do eat are other Apes!!!

[Aunt Margaret]

pictures
Great pictures!