This monkey decided he didn’t like the paparazzi taking video of him and he decided to scare me off. Just watch, this monkey would scare you, too. You can see the look on his face when he decides to come at me.
Mind you, I was a good 8ft (2.5m) away.
But I’d been filming him for a few minutes and when he stole a bag from the groundskeeper he didn’t seem to want an audience.
Fortunately, his “attack” didn’t include jumping down on me. He stayed up in the tree as he ran at me and getting me to back off seemed to be enough to satisfy him.
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Honestly, if he had given me a few more seconds to react to his warning look, I would have backed off without the chase – but this makes for a better video.
He was growling and fussing with the other monkeys, too. Don’t know if he’s always grumpy or if he was just having a rough day. The other monkeys were absolutely mellow about humans taking pictures of them.
One woman got far closer for a selfie with a monkey than I ever would. I’m not generally scared of animals, it’s the rabies shots that I’m more concerned about.
The Lady Buddha is a great place to visit. Don’t let one angry monkey scare you off. Many of the temples in Southeast Asia have monkeys like these, and some are far more nefarious.
In fact, we have another monkey video from this same temple with far less aggression.
Monkey Warning: Never leave anything unguarded that they might grab and run off with. They will readily steal your lunch or any snacks you might have.
There are tales throughout Southeast Asia of more mischievous monkeys, especially at temples where they’re well protected and they have no worries about being harmed.
In some places they downright harass unsuspecting tourists, causing them to drop whatever package or bag they might have. The temple monkeys then snatch the bag to find out if they’ve scored a snack. They’ll go after backpacks, water bottles, or anything they can get their hands on, so always travel light when there may be monkeys around
There’s also the Buddhist tradition of placing offerings, like fruit and snacks, in front of various Buddha statues. The monkeys know this, and they know what time the monks put the offerings out. I was at Lady Buddha at one of these times.
We have two other, bigger monkey stories…well, one monkey, and one ape, and both of those center on Tim.
The first time Tim got an ape girlfriend was at Camp Leakey in Kalimantan (Borneo), Indonesia – and she was a QUEEN. You can read that blog post here: https://www.teamhazardridesagain.com/orangutan-tours-kalimantan-borneo-indonesia/
Tim’s second monkey girlfriend came to have tea and cookies with him at Mole National Park in Ghana: You can read about that adventure here: https://www.teamhazardridesagain.com/mole-national-park-ghana-safari-tours/
Happy Travels! May they be free of grumpy monkeys.
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