You Don’t Mess With A Jaipur Temple Monkey

I’ve always loved primates. It fascinates me that they are so alike to humans, yet so different…well at least I thought so until I sat with a gang of temple monkeys on the side of Jaipurian temple Galwar Bagh – if they didn’t have fur and weren’t the size of abnornally large rats then passers by definitely would have thought we looked like a nice group of young people sitting around in the sun enjoying a peanut or two.

As soon as I heard about these Macaque-infested buildings lining a steep hill climb up to visit the temple, it was a no-brainer: We were going! But it didn’t actually register that we were about to walk unassisted into a lair of teeth-baring primates until we arrived and saw the sheer number of monkeys spilling out from an open door – little guys, big mama’s and even crazed pyscho monkeys…it was like the Usual Suspects line up, sans Keyser Soze. The rustling of plasctic encased peanuts caused near hysteria among the group, but me, feeling like a right Dr Doolittle decided it would be fun to sit down and hand out peanuts to each by hand. These  guys have opposable thumbs after all, so I wasn’t going anywhere until I saw them in action!

I think my ease around them had a calming effect as they never once displayed any kind of agression or fear to me…but Mike on the other hand who was a little more apphrensive had a whole bag snatched from his grip as one cunning monkey launched himself off a ledge to claim his rightful prize. And, like a greedy human who has just realised they’ve hit the jackpot, he was off around the corner bingeing on his spoils before any of his friends knew what was going on. Unbelievable!

For me though, one of the highlights of Galwar Bagh didnt come from a monkey at all – it was a lone female cow, complete with a bell around it’s neck that came charging through the path out of nowhere, nearly taking both of us out, and a few monkeys too! I have no idea where she came from and even less where she was going, but that thing scared the living hell out of us, much more than any monkey did!

If you happen to visit Jaipur then you must visit the temple, monkey lover or not..and if people say the little guys are dangerous then please tell them of my crazed cow story and tell them to be on their merry way!  Just be sure to take truckloads of peanuts or prepare yourself for the wrath of a very hungry army.