IN PICTURES: MONKEYS IN ASIA (PART 1)

This photo essay is dedicated to the monkey, a critter that is rather abundant in parts of our world.

On the Indonesian island of Sumatra, just outside the town of Bukit Tinggi 

Also on Sumatra, but in the jungle near the town of Bukit Lawang

Loitering outside a guesthouse south of Krabi, Thailand

This monkey, seen both in the picture above and in the two below, is napping outside a temple in Kathmandu, Nepal.

This monkey is also at the Kathmandu temple but perhaps has less time to rest on account of being a mother. 

A few hundred miles to the south, in the Indian city of Varanasi, the urban jungle is shared by monkeys and men.  People live in the alleys and along the river; the monkeys on rooftops and near power lines.  They are also master thieves, swinging out of nowhere to land on your guesthouse table, perhaps to rob a Korean tourist of her just-bought bracelets, flashing their fangs so that the unsuspecting human is frozen in fear.  (I have seen several monkey robberies myself, but for a hilarious story of one in the Indian town of Rishikesh, click on Rolf Potts' story entitled "Tantric Sex for Dilettantes" and scroll down to Part Five.  The story was included in The Best American Travel Writing 2006.)

More Varanasi monkeys (one had been chewing on a AA battery)

This is the view from a guesthouse roof in Varanasi.  Here you see people looking at the Ganges, who are in turn being looked at by the monkeys, who are quite possibly planning their next heist.

PART II OF THIS SERIES CAN BE FOUND HERE