Day 8: Part 1, A Barrel O' Monkeys

Day 8 starts with a wake up call at 6:30 AM. I jump out of bed,
(figuratively, of course. If my bed was on fire, it would still take
me 10 minutes to get out, and even then, I'd probably crawl right back
in.) And head down for another fantastic breakfast.

At 8:30 a truck picks me up for a Elephant Trek and Cave excursion. I
ride in the back all the way to the Elephant farm. Maybe "Farm" is
the wrong word here. It's more like someone has a house, and just
happens to keep a half dozen Elephants in the front yard.

To tell you the truth, the "trek" part of the elephant trek wasn't
really up to the hype. It was more like riding a cow that keeps
stopping to eat, around someone's backyard. And...it was raining.
Still, it was fun.

Actually the best part of the whole thing was getting to feed the
elephant bananas. Up on the animal, all you can see is the back of
it's head, but on the ground, interacting with it is a whole other
thing. That trunk is incredible! The elephant would gingerly take the
bananas from my hand, smell me all over, and when I ran out of fruit,
smack me around a little. I didnt even care that the rest of the day,
I had elephant snot all over the front of my shirt!

Since it had rained a little, the cave part got cancelled. That's ok
because the day was just getting started! Back at the hotel, I rented
a motorcycle and took off for the Monkey School! When I got there,
the place looked deserted.

A guy came out and said that for 100 baht I could play with the
monkeys and take pictures. Actually, that sounds really dirty, but it
was by far the best part of my day! I went in, and all the monkeys
were tied down. The monkey-keeper said I could play with any of
them. The monkeys actually grab and jump on you as you walk by!

I asked if the monkeys could be untied, it was sad seeing them tied up
like that. What happened next made me realize why they were tied up
in the first place.

They instantly jump all over you! One monkey kept trying to pull out
my tongue. Of course, then the monkeys fight. Two of the monkeys,
one I'll call "Bitey" and the other I'll call "Horney" grabbed me from
both sides, and held me down. Bitey kept biting me, and Horney, well,
let's just say that I kept trying to go more towards Bitey.

The most fun monkey, though, was an 8 month old baby monkey named
"Joy". Joy would climb up on your head, jump off, then jump into your
arms, over and over again. Then she would run around, knocking things
all over the place, and climb up my leg.

As I was about to leave, Joy got a shower. The monkeys are bathed
every day, and they love it! I was sad to go, but I had to wash the
feces off my face and be on my way to another adventure!

I jumped on the bike, and rode to the nearest village, Saladan.
Saladan was nearly deserted, this being the low season and all, so I
turned around and headed towards the sea gypsy village at the other
end of the island.

Jason Phipps
Art Director
Big Boss Creative
(818)841-8900