Monkey Business

Last weekend, prior to going to the village in Svay Rieng, we had a busy Phnom Penh Saturday. Shanti's friend Becky arrived at 3:00 in the morning the previous night (thanks to an awful - and awfully long - bus ride). After a delicious chocolate chip muffin breakfast, we set out on the town, first to check out paintings - Shanti bought one for her sister - and then to hang out at Wat Phnom.

Wat Phnom, which means "hill temple," is thought to be the sight of Phnom Penh's founding several hundred years ago. It is now largely a tourist attraction, not only because of the impressive and unique temple itself, but because of the wild monkeys that play in the surrounding park. On several occasions prior, I had visited Wat Phnom to enjoy watching the monkeys playing, eating, and, in many ways, acting incredibly human. The monkeys have, in the past wreaked some havoc, with the government of Cambodia putting a bounty of $250 out for a few "gang leader" monkeys (AFP article here).

After a few minutes of watching the primates play, Becky decided to get some food to feed them. While the monkeys are wild, they are by no means shy. Within a few minutes they were literally eating out of our hands. They sat by our feet eating pieces of a lotus, a green, triangular vegetable that can be peeled to reveal edible seeds. Once all of the food was gone, we continued to watch the monkeys. I noticed that some of them were drinking from a small ground-level tap. Though it wasn't switched on, there was a small puddle at its base. Thinking it would be entertaining to watch monkeys play in a running water, I stepped over to turn it on. As I reached down to do so, three monkeys, all within a few feet, bared their teeth at me, Shanti, and Becky. For some reason, they were either very protective of the tap or they were fiercely opposed to playing in the water. Teeth bared, they started chasing us! Granted, these were small monkeys, no more than ten or fifteen pounds, but they were quite menacing. We actually ran a little bit, much to the amusement of the Cambodians around us, to get out of their way. This is something I will definitely have to remember when I take my parents and sister up to Wat Phnom on their visit...