September 16th, 2005 | The lowdown by Aliwyn Cole

Monkey Mountain

Monkey Mountain is situated about thirty minutes walk from where I live. I have taken a few visiting friends up there for the novelty, each time warning them about the greedy monkeys, who are rather cheeky in their demand for food.

They clamber onto cars, climb through open windows, run after any crazy cyclists, and occasionally growl at pedestrians. Many locals have encouraged this behaviour by providing them with vast amounts of bananas, corn, and lethal looking brightly coloured jellies, the empty packets of which litter the mountain road.

My boss lives in an apartment next to the mountain, and we often hear his latest tale of an unwelcome visit by a monkey looking for water or other supplies. At the moment we need more rain to avoid water shortages next year, and the monkeys respond early to the water shortage by coming into town to look for more. He has resorted to putting pretend snakes on his balcony in an attempt to keep them away.

It is a steep walk in the heat, but I do it for the exercise, and although steep, the mountain isn’t very high so it only takes me about five minutes to get to where the monkeys hang out. The walk is also sheltered somewhat by lush trees, which help to keep some of the heat at bay. There is a sacred tree just before you find the monkeys, which is covered with pink strips of material, tied around its thick trunk, as a show of respect as an older tree. A restaurant opens at night, and the monkeys like to walk around on the road along side of it. You can eat Thai food while looking out over the well-lit town of Bangsaen and the sea.

I take a break and look out over the sea, and the hotels and condominiums spread along the beach. It is a beautiful view of blue sea and blue sky. No rain in sight, unfortunately it has to be said. An old woman wanders around, selling baskets of bananas to give to the monkeys. A security guard sits nearby, on the brink of sleep in the hot sun. Even the monkeys seem more chilled-out than usual, and are grooming each other while sheltering from the heat under trees, or whatever else they can find.

I decide to walk back home and get a cool drink. I can walk to the main road, about ten minutes away in this heat, and take a song-tao-the local equivalent of a bus-back to my road for seven baht.