India part 4 -- MONKEYS

After a break to update my shows, I'm returning to the India report. Once I see pictures from my traveling friends, I will probably have some more of me/us to post and I'm saving some stories to go with their pictures. Continuing...

On our very first day driving around Agra, we noticed monkeys roaming around the city. When I remarked on them, our guide said, "The cows belong to people, but the monkeys and the dogs don't." After that, we saw monkeys all over the place.

Here are some monkeys going into the Red Fort (there are three or four in this picture, but you might not be able to make them all out). This was a pretty high tower that's been around for hundreds of years and was used to defend the city, but now it's for tourists and monkeys. That tower has got to be disgusting inside.

This guy is hanging out on the wall ouside of the Taj Mahal.

Here are some near a ruined city that we visited.

Grooming... in a temple in the ruined city.

I tried so hard to get a shot like this. Mama and baby both looking right at me!

One day, we took a two hour drive out to a Jain temple. Jains don't believe in violence, and that includes the obvious restrictions on killing animals for food or clothing, but also includes restrictions on killing bugs and eating root vegetables because you might kill a bug in the process of it. Needless to say, I'd make a bad Jain.

So we were told not to wear leather into the temple and not to bring food. But on the drive to Ranakpur, we drove for two hours on a winding road and my weak stomach couldn't take it. I also had a headache practically the entire time I was there, so as soon as we arrived I took Dramamine and Excedrin. I thought it would be a bad idea to take all these drugs on an empty stomach, so I took out a protein bar and thought I could finish it in the parking lot before getting to the temple.

As soon as I got out of the car, we saw some monkeys and I thought, "HOW CUTE!!" I opened the wrapper of my protein bar, took a bite, and then got my camera ready to take some pictures.... just as three monkeys descended and poised themselves for an attack of my protein bar/me. Somehow I had the presence of mind to realize that I should get this food out of my possession as quickly as possible. I turned back towards the car and threw my bar back into the car and slammed the door. I honestly don't know if the car door was open, or if I opened it. Problem solved.

But don't worry... as soon as our tour was over, I finished it, as I had aimed it perfectly to land right on my seat! Before this experience, I liked the monkeys. After this experience, I could feel my heart rate speed up any time they were around, which was pretty often.