Animal antics anecs...

Monkey Love, Charging of the Bull, King Cobra threats…

I have now had several animal anecdotes that I believe are worth sharing…

In Jaipur, which is the capital of Rajasthan and well greased into the tourist track, our rickshaw driver recommended we scout out the “Monkey temple.” He offered, as I now know is standard routine in Rajasthan, to take us for “whatever you want to pay Madame. If you are happy, you pay me, if not then nothing.” I’ve become very skeptical during my time here, and therefore approached this suggestion with caution. However, in the end we decided to hit up the monkey temple at sunset, however we refrained from purchasing the token tourist peanuts for the “feed the monkey photo op.” We needed to maintain some dignity.

The monkey temple was, true to its name, adorned with literally hundreds of monkeys scattered throughout its grounds, and also, pleasantly, devoid of tourists. Near the entrance a pair of monkeys sat grooming each other, testifying on behalf of the fabled “nit-picking in the name of love” ritual. The temple itself was silently stirring, as the shrines were lit up against dusk’s blue filter and the ceiling opened to the sky displaying a tapestry of rock and mountain.

Monkey love.

Monkey temple.

This was our first encounter. Benign, amusing, even a tiny bit spiritual.

Day two in Rajasthan, we visited the Amber fort. Rajasthan is teeming with forts and palaces as it was home to the Rajput warriors, and the Amber fort is among its most impressive. As Shannon and I explored the fort, we stumbled upon many concrete passages connecting different rooms and balconies. In one of these passages, Shannon stopped short as she saw a monkey sitting at the top of the stairs with its back to us, seemingly taking in the view. She attempted to get its attention, and was surprised – and a little frightened - when it “made a face” at her. I hadn’t seen the face so I cavalierly went in for the photo – however, the monkey was clearly annoyed that we hadn’t gotten the message the first time. As I called out something like “Hey there monkey,” the little guy turned, bared its teeth while making a sound somewhere between a hiss and a cackle, and lunged toward us. Yep, we screamed like girls and ran, causing a scene and falling into the hard-to-shed role of “stupid American girls.”

This photo was taken just moments after the monkey attack.

From that point on, Shannon developed a fear of monkeys comparable to my fear of cows. Yep, that’s right… I have a fear of cows. One ridiculously hot afternoon in Vellore I was walking down the bustling bazaar of “Gandhi Rd” and I spotted a horned cow (I think that makes it a bull, yes?) luxuriously strolling down the road sans owner or cart. I thought, (again we see a tragic flaw emerging here) “That’d be a nice photo.” As I picked up the pace to pass the cow and aim my camera in its direction, the cow put his head down, broke into a trot, and head butted me! Two guys who witnessed the incident ran over and threw their arms out to “siphon me off” (old school reference here, points if anyone can name it) and protect me. Interestingly I was carrying a bright red plastic bag… perhaps testifying on behalf of the fabled bulls charging the color red adage. Regardless, since then I give cows and bulls a huge circumference as I make my way past them.

One more animal anecdote. So, my research focuses on toxicology and snake bites - ironic because as long as I can remember, I’ve had a severe snake phobia. I remember keeping my distance when the neighborhood kids went out to catch garden snakes. Honestly, I think I usually ran inside. Through my research I’ve been working on making amends with the reptiles, however, it’s a bit hard to do because I’m finding a 4-5% mortality rate. So I don’t think we’re going to be good friends anytime soon.

Also at Jaipur’s Amber fort we spotted this snake charmer who had drawn quite a crowd serenading a cobra and coaxing him out of his woven basket. Later on, in Agra when our driver had pulled over for a smoking break, a man approached the car, rapped on the window and asked us if we wanted to see his “King Cobra.” This can be disturbing in several ways, however, the most alarming possibility to us was that he really was nestling a four foot snake under his jacket. And to add to our panic the driver had left the driver side window rolled down. Luckily we were emphatically firm enough that we did NOT want anything to do with his cobra that he wandered away to the next car.

Truly, it's a jungle over here...