Monkey business and scary rides

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Today I’m with monkeys and someone is coming to pick me up. Remember the motorcycle with trailer I talked about yesterday? You guessed it…… The driver is late picking me up so the journey is a bit of a white knuckle ride. We bomb through the streets of Kanchanaburi at 60km an hour (I’m not exaggerating that’s what the speedo said) and this guy isn’t slowing down for speed bumps! I keep flying out of my seat when we go over the bumps and round corners, and I’m sure that I’m going to just fly out of the front (there‘s nothing to stop me). I think I’ve still got indentations from holding on so tight, but it’s bloody fantastic. Who needs theme parks? Just come to Asia and hop in a taxi! (I did have a moment of fear when we veered round a corner straight onto the highway……).
At the monkey school monkeys that have been rescued (from zoos, street traders, poachers) or orphaned are brought here and trained to work (climbing the trees and collecting coconuts) and put on shows for tourists. I keep getting attacked by a baby monkey (in a playful way) that seems fascinated by my hair. It was fascinated by my jewellery at first and I had to take off my earrings and necklace, but I forgot to remove my bracelet and it keeps diving on me and trying to unfasten it (I think that‘s what it‘s trying to do to my hair too). I take part in a tourist show where I have to sit on a chair and a piece of string is tied around my wrists. A monkey then very quickly unties all the knots and removes the string, then shakes my hand to say goodbye. That baby monkey is going to be very good at this! Also in the show are monkeys playing basketball, riding a bike and diving to retrieve things from a pool (very naughty monkey doesn‘t want to perform, just play!). All the time they’re then rewarded with bananas, bottles of milk and sweets. The journey back is much tamer (it’s a woman driver!), but I spend most of it watching her son pick his nose and eat the contents! Then just have a wander around taking photographs and call at the 711 to stock up on snacks and drinks for the journey tomorrow - 7 hours on the train. Included in my purchases is a packet of garlic and black pepper chicken. When I get to the cashier she says something to me in Thai. I have no idea what she just said so I just smile. Before I know it my chickens been whipped away and put in a microwave. I now have hot chicken. At least I know it’s cooked for tomorrow! Tomorrow is my last day here so I’m doing the Kanchanaburi history thing - bridge over the river Kwai, Death Railway, war cemetery, and then the train back to Bangkok.

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