Monkey Business
BTW - for those of you that enjoyed yesterday's long post - don't get your hopes up for too many more. I was in the cyber cafe for 2.5hrs yesterday - which was a record. I am at the same place today and it is in the high 30 degs C with all the people & pcs, but no AC!
In fact I was wearing shorts and a SS shirt last night at 9pm and I was still sweating...lol...summer here must be insane!
I explored another temple complex today - not much new to report on that, but there were a huge troop of monkeys in the area so I took some pics and shot some video of them. I climbed some large boulders (a la Jumbo Rocks) and found a nice shady nook where I could chill out and watch the main temple and Hampi bazaar. It was very peaceful (and cool!). After 30mins I heard some noise below me and saw a few monkeys had come over to the shady area cast by the rocks I was on. They seemed cool about me being so close so I took some more pics. Then I got the brilliant idea I would pour some water on the rocks and see what happens!
As soon as the water cascaded down to the monkeys a baby monkey bounced up the rocks like popcorn and started licking the rocks. That's when things started go wrong....lol...the mother comes up to keep and eye on her baby and the baby starts moving closer to me. The really messed up part is that the only way down was the exactly where the monkeys were - I had 20ft overhanging drop behind me and sheer rock walls on either side!
So running out of options I shoo'd the baby monkey hoping to scare it away, but all I succeeded doing is getting the mother agitated and making the baby more interested.
Yikes!
I moved as far back as I could and tried to look harmless. Eventually the baby move to the far edge of the rocks and the mother climbed back down.
Definitely a positive change to the situation, but the only way down still required I clamber down some rocks within 4ft of where the monkeys were hanging out. Oh well - I made my move very slowly all the while talking to the monkeys telling them how cool they were and that I was just climbing down so I could be on my way. I chanted a few Oms - figuring that would calm them down.
It worked - they got a little agitated, but nothing happened.
The morale of this story is don't conduct behavioral experiments with animals when perched upon some high rocks with only one way down...lol..!
The rest of the day was pretty chill. I burnt a couple of my digi cam memory cards to CDR. I will probably end up with at least 3GBs of video and pics.
I am going to go find a cold drink and some shade now till the sun starts to set - then I'll climb a hill near the main temple to watch the sunset over Hampi.
Tomorrow I have most of the day here, but I need to catch a train to Bangalore at 8pm from Hospet.
In fact I was wearing shorts and a SS shirt last night at 9pm and I was still sweating...lol...summer here must be insane!
I explored another temple complex today - not much new to report on that, but there were a huge troop of monkeys in the area so I took some pics and shot some video of them. I climbed some large boulders (a la Jumbo Rocks) and found a nice shady nook where I could chill out and watch the main temple and Hampi bazaar. It was very peaceful (and cool!). After 30mins I heard some noise below me and saw a few monkeys had come over to the shady area cast by the rocks I was on. They seemed cool about me being so close so I took some more pics. Then I got the brilliant idea I would pour some water on the rocks and see what happens!
As soon as the water cascaded down to the monkeys a baby monkey bounced up the rocks like popcorn and started licking the rocks. That's when things started go wrong....lol...the mother comes up to keep and eye on her baby and the baby starts moving closer to me. The really messed up part is that the only way down was the exactly where the monkeys were - I had 20ft overhanging drop behind me and sheer rock walls on either side!
So running out of options I shoo'd the baby monkey hoping to scare it away, but all I succeeded doing is getting the mother agitated and making the baby more interested.
Yikes!
I moved as far back as I could and tried to look harmless. Eventually the baby move to the far edge of the rocks and the mother climbed back down.
Definitely a positive change to the situation, but the only way down still required I clamber down some rocks within 4ft of where the monkeys were hanging out. Oh well - I made my move very slowly all the while talking to the monkeys telling them how cool they were and that I was just climbing down so I could be on my way. I chanted a few Oms - figuring that would calm them down.
It worked - they got a little agitated, but nothing happened.
The morale of this story is don't conduct behavioral experiments with animals when perched upon some high rocks with only one way down...lol..!
The rest of the day was pretty chill. I burnt a couple of my digi cam memory cards to CDR. I will probably end up with at least 3GBs of video and pics.
I am going to go find a cold drink and some shade now till the sun starts to set - then I'll climb a hill near the main temple to watch the sunset over Hampi.
Tomorrow I have most of the day here, but I need to catch a train to Bangalore at 8pm from Hospet.
posted by Vik at 4:03 AM
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