Beware of the Monkeys

 

Roland and I just returned from a trip to Southeast Asia, and we saw plenty of cute monkeys in Cambodia. We were told not to get close to them, however, since a scratch or a bite could result in getting rabies. As one of our guides put it, “That’s why you have zoom on your camera.”

The monkey at the head of this post is a good example of the problem. We first saw him outside the prayer building at Udon Monastery (a Buddhist temple) north of Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Then we saw him again inside, in the back of the building. That’s the next photo.

We had left the prayer building and were standing outside waiting for the rest of our group when we heard a screech. Apparently the monkey had advanced all the way to the front where two monks were on duty giving blessings and had walked right up to one of them. The monk jumped up, ran away, and didn’t return until the monkey was gone. But if a peaceful Buddhist monk was afraid of monkeys, we certainly should have been.

Monkeys seem to like temples. We saw the next one at Phnom Pros, which was used as a prison by the Khmer Rouge. The area has been turned into a Buddha garden as a memorial for all the people killed there, and I first saw this monkey on top of a statue of an elephant. Unfortunately, he moved around too much and I couldn’t get a good photo of him there. I did get this one, though.

These last two photos were taken at the ruined Bayon Temple near Siem Reap. I’m pretty sure they are not the same animal.

So much for the monkeys. I’ll write about the temples next week.