Monkeys

ThailandTom

So today was my partners day off of work and she had planned to go with our friend who owns the pharmacy I frequent to feed monkeys food at a buddhist temple. I have a final exam on the 1st for my Thai class and I guess was sing it as an exscuse not to go as I am saving my meds for times when I must go outside.

They turned up and I was kind of forced into the situation, so I got in her car and we drove thuere. I have been there before, but not to this specific part. It has a few different temples with one which is otop of a big climb of stairs. The whole place is actually high up as it is over looking the sea. It has monks and nuns roaming around along with dogs and many many monkeys. The woman from the pharmacy bought a load of food specifically to give them as they rarely have food. I was feeling rather anxious and not good, but then came the time to start handing out the food. It was a great feeling feeding these little creatures, watching them come up to you and most of the time kindly grab it. There was little hostility actually. I will upload some fotos tomorrow, it was a good day in the end without medication

Lady_Alison

I think nature has a way of calming us. Good story.

Arjquad

Who doesn't love monkeys? When I went to Mexico, I got to hold a monkey and then it climbed onto my head and peaked down at me from over top of my hats visor.

person

While in India I saw lots of monkeys. I have 2 good pictures (sorry this is before digital, they are hard copies). One of a monk sitting on the side of a path feeding some monkeys the other of a monkey reaching through the window of someone's hotel room stealing stuff. They are cute, but hide your stuff! :eek:

ThailandTom

Here are some of the many photos I took, the story I rushed an really does not convey the situation too well at all. Anyway here they are, they are screenshots so mind the resolution. The smallish woman in pink is my GF and the woman in a greeny/yellow top is our friend.

person

What's with that statue in the last picture Tom? It looks pockmarked or something, all the Buddha statues I've seen before have been smooth, just curious. Also do you know anything about the bells in the picture with your GF? In TB they have prayer wheels that are lined up in the same way, when you spin them the prayers inside are supposed to spin out into the world or something, is that how ringing the bells works?

Thanks for sharing.

ThailandTom

In nearly every temple in Thailand I have been to, the statues are of highly regarded monks who have passed and golden leaf is commonly rubbed onto the statues, why I do not know. The bells, I highly doubt it has anything to do with TB buddhism being in Thailand, there were a dish of sticks and you are meant to walk around the temple and clong every bell for good luck lol.. this is what I mean about how Thais see buddhism as a 'religion'.

person

In nearly every temple in Thailand I have been to, the statues are of highly regarded monks who have passed and golden leaf is commonly rubbed onto the statues, why I do not know. The bells, I highly doubt it has anything to do with TB buddhism being in Thailand, there were a dish of sticks and you are meant to walk around the temple and clong every bell for good luck lol.. this is what I mean about how Thais see buddhism as a 'religion'.

Thanks for the explanation about the statue. I wasn't saying that the bells were TB I was just wondering if the principle is the same. It kind of sounds like it.

ThailandTom

Yea I can see the correlation for sure, the only difference is that these bells were on 3 lines around a building instead of on straight line I do not know the reason to gold leafing monk statues.. maybe google can help. But here is another foto I took ages ago in Ranong Thailand

Lady_Alison

Jesus christ look at all them monkeys!!

Ain't see anything like that in Texas! I'm so jealous, if I ever take a trip to Thailand I'll let you know.

Your girlfriend is pretty.

Lady_Alison

Are this monkeys running around like new York pigeons? Are they spade or neutered or do they run around in temples and homes, Willy nilly?

ThailandTom

lol @Alison, these monkeys are only found onthis location which is high up on a mountain type thing where there are temples. There are no real homes apart from monks and nons who live there. The monkeys are really actually friendly, I thought they would take your hats and bite, take food etc, but they are quite patient. They take food when you offer it to them and grab it like a human, it is uncanny. Thank you for the compliment about my GF, I am sure she would appreciate it being her age, she is often insecure as I am quite a bit younger than her.

Lady_Alison

She looks about 25 or 26... Thai women are beautiful they actually resemble Honduran women and seem to age gracefully. Yea, tell her! Make her week! Get some kisses!

Thank you for the pics!

ThailandTom

I personally would say 35 lol... But that would be a major compliemtn to say she lookes like a 26 year old haha. Maybe it is the glasses and hat, I dunno. But yes darker skinned people seem to age better as the signs of aging are hiden to the eye easier.

MONKEYS!

Lady_Alison

Speaking of aging, I think I need glasses. I'm terribly near sighted ...ah, what I would do to be your age and have my experience. Oh yeah, monkey topic.

I would probably freak out and I'm a screamer. Did you see my peacock picture? I found him in aRestaurant parking lot, it was so random. I didn't scream but I was scared.

Aren't you happy you got out of the house?

ThailandTom

I missed the peacock foto. That does sound really random though lol. I was at first very unhappy to go out as I was working on my final exam which is on the 1st and also I hadn't taken any meds. so they rushed me out. But after a while I just accepted it and then when it came to actually giving the monkeys food, the rewards of compassion and new experience showed themselves.

Lady_Alison

Yay

ThailandTom

I have come across a few peacocks here and in the UK, they seem to be timid and more scared of you than you are of them, unless your name is Alison that is hehe. I saw in a public park in Bangkok called 'Lumphini Park' a camodo-dragon just floating by in the lake. It is not a zoo or anything with cages, it was quite strange. It was at least 6 feet long. I will dig out the picture.

ThailandTom

Here it is

Lady_Alison

Ah...I was scared of that peacock...it let me get very close. My heart was beating fast and I thought, "yep, there goin to find me, death by peacock." But no really tame.

Komodo dragons!!!! I hate that I live way over here...I did a paper on them. Those lizards are very rare.

ThailandTom

Yea I know a lot about them from watching natgeo when I had a TV. All about their saliva, hunting methods etc. Still, they roam around a huge public park where kids and people frequent in the middle of a capital city bigger than London lol... WEIRD!

hahaha, "death by peacock" I guess the only way that would happen is if you challenged a randy male or something.

Arjquad

I saw a kamodo in the Denver Zoo once. It was pretty big. Also Alison your peacock comments made me remember that far back in my families history, I had relatives with the last name of Peacock.

robot

Tom. I was also surprised to see a man sleeping in that park with two of those things wandering past inside of a couple of meters of him. I believe they are asian water monitors which is not to say that they are any less fierce than a Komodo dragon. According to wiki they can grow to over ten feet long and eat farm animals.

Lady_Alison

Really @arjquad?

What would have been cool is if you had an ancestor named monkey.

I would have loved to have been feeding these monkeys! I would have screamed the whole time but inside, delighted!

Lady_Alison

Tom, no wonder you never want to leave your house. . . It's a damn jungle! Fucking dragons and monkeys running around!

Awesome, I would live in Thailand if I could, I'd scream the whole time but inside, delighted!

ThailandTom

@robot really, 10feet. wow, if they can eat farm animals they can eat kids, and most likely adults. Anyway, that is Thailand for you, "mai bpen rai". Thanks for the research :coffee: :hiding:

I love Lumphini Park but dislike Bangkok a lot, that park is like a patch of paridise within utter chaos. Have you ever been to that place called 'Anciet Siam'? That tops Lumphini IMO

robot

No I haven't. I just came across Lumphini park while I was killing time before catching the train up north. I will try to avoid spending any time in Bangkok in future. Way to frantic for me.

ThailandTom

No I haven't. I just came across Lumphini park while I was killing time before catching the train up north. I will try to avoid spending any time in Bangkok in future. Way to frantic for me.

Ditto, that city is pure craziness. Did you know that the most recent classes with the army and red shirts last ended in Lumphini? I remember seeing it on TV, that place turned into a warzone. I accidently came across Lumphini when I was waiting to catch my drain south lol. We got to the train station (which has the worse public toilets in the world) at around 8am and it was full. we had to wait 14 hours!

robot

That sucks. On the way back down the toilet on the train was unusable for half the trip so I had to grin and bear it. When I got to the station I took one look in the washroom and decided I could hold out till the airport. Beautiful washrooms there.
No I didn't know that about Lumphini park. That's interesting. Apparently the city was under water just a few weeks before I got there and I sure couldnt tell. Pretty resilient people over there.

ThailandTom

Well only certain provinces were effected at certain times across 3 months, it was handled very poorly by the government and the aftermath handled amazingly well by the general public. I posted some videos of the Thai people in BKK during the floods, they went about their daily lives as if there was no water. I will try and find the video if you are curious to see.

Lady_Alison

@person scan them in and show us

While in India I saw lots of monkeys. I have 2 good pictures (sorry this is before digital, they are hard copies). One of a monk sitting on the side of a path feeding some monkeys the other of a monkey reaching through the window of someone's hotel room stealing stuff. They are cute, but hide your stuff! :eek:

ThailandTom

@person scan them in and show us

While in India I saw lots of monkeys. I have 2 good pictures (sorry this is before digital, they are hard copies). One of a monk sitting on the side of a path feeding some monkeys the other of a monkey reaching through the window of someone's hotel room stealing stuff. They are cute, but hide your stuff! :eek:

Please do, if you have a scanner or know where one is... or take a picture of a picture lol.

ThailandTom

@robot here is the video. I am still amazed at how people go about their day, laughing, smiling saying hello to the camera etc.

robot

Thanks Tom, that's a great video. I hope there is no flooding this year. I'm planning to come over sooner and stay longer.

ThailandTom

There has been talk and I personally think there will be flooding again to some extent. They have deforested too much further north to absorb the water and it gets worse each year, bangkok has been sinking for a long time. I was eating at a place with a TV 3 days ago and the King was discussing a plan for this year with regards to BKK. My partner did not wish to watch as the Kings health is pretty bad, the guy can barely speak now.

robot

The forestry industry must be in the northeast. I didn't see any deforestation in the northwest, thankfully. It's so beautiful up there. I miss it already and I've only been home a couple of weeks.

person

Sorry I don't know how to crop them. Anyway the first is of the monk feeding monkeys. I guess I didn't get an actual picture of a monkey stealing anything, but if you look at the second one they run along those red ledges and reach into open windows. The last was just another one where I found Jim Morrison and Bob Marley alive and well!

ThailandTom

I love the monk foto, when did you take these again? Yes Morrison is well, but Marley doesn;t look so good, I guess it is better than being dead...

person

I love the monk foto, when did you take these again? Yes Morrison is well, but Marley doesn;t look so good, I guess it is better than being dead...

Oh this was a while back in the spring of '98.

ThailandTom

When I was 10 years old! They are cool though, there is a certain something about film photos that you hold and keep as apposed to digital images stored on a memory card or computer. Thanks for sharing.

person

When I was 10 years old! They are cool though, there is a certain something about film photos that you hold and keep as apposed to digital images stored on a memory card or computer. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, believe it or not, but once upon a time cameras used something called film.

ThailandTom

When I was 10 years old! They are cool though, there is a certain something about film photos that you hold and keep as apposed to digital images stored on a memory card or computer. Thanks for sharing.

Yeah, believe it or not, but once upon a time cameras used something called film.

lol, I studied photography along side graphic design in college, first we used pin-hole cameras, then film and then digital. It was quite cool getting to know all the processes etc.

possibilities

Not a monkey pic - but one taken with a pin hole camera and 6 months exposure! I posted this in another thread, here it is again:
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120121.html

ThailandTom

Very cool. Was it a bought pinhole camera or did you make it yourself? At college we had to make our own out of boxes lol...

possibilities

LOL - not my photo! Happened to come across it on that NASA site. My husband made one once out of an empty film canister.

Lady_Alison

Thank you @person for posting type pics. I had a strange day Tom, I wish I could banter with you but I just came in to check my inbox and say "what's up and goodnight "...my new doctor has a bad bedside manner and I had to go in today for a round of blood tests and ekg exams for heart palpable, remember? Her nurses seem afraid and way too nice, almost afraid to lose their jobs. I was prodded all morning by a menapousal phlebotomist having hot flashes and I didn't get a chance to go until all my vaccinations were updated. Vaccines hurt like a mofo! Now I remember why I would run under the chairs in the clinic waiting room as a child.

I know this is off topic but I need to point out something...I crashed dieted and now I'm dealing with possible anemia or heart damage. I don't want the same for you...some healthy fasting is okay but in moderation, no extremes.

Love you.

Lady_Alison

Typo...heart palps...ah! Spell check, fuck it!

ThailandTom

Wow, I am really very sorry to hear about your day. Nothing is set in stone as of now however, you have no results of the tests, and even in the worse case scenario there are good medicines and treatments for what you describe. Sometimes it is hard not to dwell on the past, but it has happened now and you neeed to try and remain positive and in the present, try to rely on those hormonal nurse! Get some rest and tomorrow will be another day Take care and speak soon