Family Travel

I Swear, More Happens When I Pee in the Morning than…

Me Ra Koh

I’m laughing to myself as I write the title b/c when else would I blog so much about peeing in the morning. But I’m telling you, stuff goes down when I get up in the morning to pee. These are serious monkey adventures with kids!

Yesterday put us over the TOP! (And you must hold your horses because a bathroom photo is coming. Just not today. To much going on! You’ll see why as you keep reading!)

It started with me sitting there, looking up at the trees and cliffs, when I see three little Macaque monkeys sitting on a tree limb above me. They’re pretty close to us for this early in the morning. And there’s another strange thing, they all have their backs turned to me. It’s usually the opposite b/c they are so entertained by all that we do in the bathroom. You can imagine, this peaked my curiosity. Then the monkey on the end looks over his shoulder at me, we make eye contact, and he whips his head back around–I can almost hear him whistling, as if he thinks I’m not on to him–trying to be all innocent. He looks over his shoulder again, and I swear the middle monkey elbowed him as if to say “Quit LOOKING!”

“Mama, there’s a lot of monkeys out here!”

Talk about monkey adventures with kids! Well now I’m figuring that it’s time to get up and see what the heck is going on. Just then I hear Blaze say, “Mama, there’s a lot of monkeys out here!” Blaze, Pasc and Brian are all eating cereal on the deck around the corner. And sure enough, in the trees, are A LOT more monkeys than normal. Their also the Macaque monkeys that are the type of monkey we had sneaking around the first day with the wounded arm. These boys mean business, where the mamas and their babies (Dusky Langur monkeys) aren’t usually interested in your food–just your toothpaste, clothes and their reflection in the bathroom mirror. 🙂

He jumps on the table, takes Blaze’s cereal bowl…

So there we are, the four of us watching all these monkeys (maybe 12-15) swing through the trees–only thirty feet away from us. And then Brian spots him first. He appears to be the new Alpha male from his own set of wounds, and in seconds, he is on the deck. He jumps on the table, takes Blaze’s cereal bowl from him and starts chowing down! Brian bangs pot lids together and throws a plastic lid at him. The alpha looks at Brian as if to say, “I’M EATING COOKIE CRISP CEREAL! BUG OFF!!”

The management told us to come and get them the next time an Alpha came back and didn’t back down. Now there’s a second monkey crawling up on the deck and more moving in. Brian tells me and the kids to “TAKE OFF!!” and get the management. Pascaline runs like the wind!

We get back to the house, and Mr. Alpha is now on the roof with the bag of cereal and an orange. The management comes with a handmade sling shot. And the moment the guy pulls the slingshot back, the monkey hides on the other side of the roof. The monkeys know these slingshots–and I’m impressed b/c nothing seems to get those monkeys to move. After about fifteen minutes of dodging around, the management is able to scare the monkeys off and away they go–back into the jungle. But the crazy thing is that I know they are watching us ALL the time. Our monkey adventures with kids is feeling a bit to intense. LOL!

The locals have helped us come up with a plan.

For the next couple days we don’t eat breakfast or lunch here and keep the place boarded up. Monkeys are animals of habit, and you can attempt to break their habit by switching your schedule up. We’ll see if they fall for it. And for the time being, we’ve been given a slingshot…just in case. 🙂 Let’s see him try to take Blaze’s Cookie Crisp AGAIN!

Never a dull moment here! It’s amazing to be immersed in the wildlife with the kids–to trouble shoot what to do–how to still coexist with the monkeys but keep ourselves safe.

We still haven’t spotted the Gibbons monkeys yet. They are small apes (monkeys with no tails :)) that sing in the morning and late afternoon with this big, high pitched “WHUUUUUPPP, WHUUUUP, WHUUUUUUUPPPPP” call. I can hear them now as I type this blog. They rarely come down to ground level, so we hope to spot them before we leave. Their morning and afternoon choruses have got to be one of the prettiest songs I’ve ever heard.

How many of you saw the movie “Gorillas in the Mist” back in the 80’s?

I LOVED that movie! I never really saw myself as a monkey-lover, but being here brings that movie back to mind–and all the day dreaming I did as a girl about living in a jungle with gorillas. As I sit here and type with the Gibbons singing in the background, I can’t help but smile.

All feels good in the world today.

Tonight we’re going to jump off a boat with the kids after dark to see if the phosphorous lights up our bodies! Be back soon with that bathroom picture! 🙂

xo

m

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  1. courtney says:

    Your blog never ceases to amaze me. 🙂 Such entertainment for me here in the land of boring, where we NEVER have monkeys staring at us watching our every move. 😉

  2. Kara Hicks says:

    Oh my word. That story is amazing!
    I am reading it as I sit here at my work desk…day dreaming about something that exciting happening here at work. Maybe a squirrel will find itself into the building and take my “to do” pile away. 🙂 hehehe
    Thanks for spurring my day dreaming! I am LOVING the stories! I hope you guys are having an amazing time!

  3. Christina says:

    I think we all had that day dream as a child. So awesome you are living it out in a sense!! I absolutly LOVE reading about your adventures. I also love that shot of Blaze today!!
    P.S. Blaze was my maiden name and I miss it so, such a cool name LOL

  4. Linda says:

    That is so cool! I can imagine your kids in a regular school talking. Oh, what did I do for vacation? I was living in the jungle with my family, and a monkey stole my cookie crisp. Then I learned how to scare it off with a slingshot. The usual. Very cool life you’ve got there.

  5. Sharon says:

    This is the coolest!

  6. Eric says:

    I want to see you pull off a photo of the bioluminesence. Low light, moving boat. I want to see the master at work and produce that shot!

  7. Oh so funny! Reading this just makes me think back to our trip to Thailand. In my last comment I mentioned the monkey that jumped on me and started pulling my hair. A local had to come over and use the slingshot to get him off of me. So from then on we referred to the sling shots as “Monkey Repellent”.

  8. It’s crazy that you guys are experiencing all of this coolness! I hope you put together some type of slideshow of all the great images you must be capturing in the future! I think our PUG group would LOVE to see more! Hope you’re having fun!
    Hugs, Jenna

  9. jeramy says:

    one of my greatest memories as a child was my grandpa making me a sling shot from scratch. i still have it. good story…take care.

  10. abbey says:

    Unbelieveable!!! You must must write a book about this experience!!
    This is great!

  11. Michelle says:

    I can’t stop laughing out loud!!! Thanks for the morning laugh!

  12. Sue Christianson says:

    ok, this story is cool, but creeps me out a little bit. Being stocked by monkeys! Can’t wait to see the bathroom picture! 🙂

  13. Melissa Kay says:

    Your stories are amazing! Thank you so much for sharing with us. I’ve been checking on your blog every day to read about your adventures.

  14. Dorian says:

    I’m now making my daughter follow your blog. She is five. Loving all your posts.

  15. jeramy says:

    oh…and could you please continue the word ‘pee’ a little bit more in your titles. i just love it! 🙂

  16. denise karis says:

    CRAAAAZY!!!! oooohhhh, goodness! I wouldnt be able to relax knowing that monkeys could jump all over me at any minute! SO NUTS!!!!!!!!!

  17. Jen says:

    This cracks me up. YOu have to check out my blog and you’ll see me with a monkey on my back…clearly these guys are very used to people. I love all the sounds of Thailand…the bugs that sound like a screetchy siren right at dust and dawn. So fun. I love the phosphorous water too…I took a really cool photo of it in Vietnam…such fun stuff. I literally feel like I’m there with you all. Keep the crazy stories comin’! Blaze looks like he could kick some monkey butt with that sling shot! No messin’ with him! 😉

  18. Leslie W. says:

    I am cryin’! So funny! What a great experience you are giving to your children!

    My mom lived in Indonesia as a kid and they had a pet spider monkey. Our family still talks about the day my grandma tried to give it a bath and how he would swipe their houseboy’s toothbrush and take it onto the roof to taunt him! I was always so jealous of my mom’s pet monkey! I can barely handle our dog, so my children will just have to live vicariously through yours. 🙂

  19. Julie Watts says:

    It will be fun to watch (or read) you all learning to coexist with these super smart monkeys…they obviously know exactly what they’re doing! lol

  20. I just shared your monkey escapade story with Luke and Makayla and all they could say was “Whoooooooooo”! We love the pic of Blaze…(got a little recipe for that one?) So magical and what a little boys and girls dream come true! Enjoy!

  21. Tina says:

    That’s insane!!!!! I had a good laugh when I read Brian threw a plastic lid at the monkey! 🙂

  22. Kristal says:

    What an amazing experience your family is having. And you are documenting the adventure, to boot. Your kids will be so grateful for that one day.

    I LOVE reading about all you guys are doing there. Fantastic blogging! 🙂 I can just hear them doing their whuuuppp, whuuuppp sounds. Love it!

  23. ron storer says:

    you are such a great story teller….glad you are all having fun:)
    it might snow here tomorrow…brrrrrrr

  24. Toni C. says:

    Incredible!! Sounds like something out of a movie. You are a real good storyteller. Love reading about all these adventures. And it’s snowing here in Washington as I read your post. Have fun!

  25. WOW! I don’t know if I can share these stories with my kids because they will be BEGGING me to go live in the jungle. Really…I would never hear the end of it!

    What a perfect time to escape Washington, too.

    (I wanna be in paradise too…waaaaaaa!)

  26. I thought of you all when we went to the Y for rock climbing. So fun. I hope the monkeys chill out.

  27. […] p.s.s.  Since we are headed back to Thailand as you read this, I had to share my favorite Thailand DETAIL.  This is from the post I wrote, “I Swear, More Happens in the Morning When I Pee than…” […]