Recovering at Monkey Beach

I woke up around 6ish with only a few cobwebs to bang off from New Years. I headed off to try and climb to the top of the other side of the island before meeting everyone else for breakfast. I got to the other side of the island and ran in to a local who spoke no English but after a round of charades he pointed me towards a path. I followed it a few hundred yards through the jungle until I hit a rock face which was about 500 feet straight up with only a few ropes hanging down. This would be the end of my journey for the morning as these were not climbing ropes but ropes that looked like they had been discarded form old boats used to tie up to docks. And while they had knots tied in them for easy climbing, I had no idea what they were secured to and turned back, figuring I probably had a better chance beating the local Muay Thai champion then getting to the top. I grabbed breakfast with the group and then went in search of a boat to the real monkey beach while most of the group went in search of a snorkel trip for the day. I found a longtail sailor who was still totally wrecked from the night before, but also the only one who no longer had a beer in his hand. I got him down to 200 bhat and we set sail. When we first arrived I saw nothing but an empty beach, however within a few minutes this place was crawling with them.








The beach is pretty littered with all kind of food and drinks that the monkeys either stole or people have given to them.










These monkey had little fear of me but having seen that Outbreak movie years ago I was a little afraid to try and pet one.




A few shots with a decent camera.








Hey Mom, are they fighting?


I have never seen wild monkeys before so this was pretty amazing, so amazing that I tipped the longtail salior 100 bhat and told him to have a beer on me. However his hangover was catching up with him and he repiled with "water". It seems that sometimes no matter where you are or who you are, we have all shared the same experiences. I returned to find the group just getting ready to board their boat for some snorkeling and we hammered out a time to meet for diner. The rest of the day I hiked around the island and talked to more of the locals, trying to learn more from them and further understand them. We grabbed dinner at Carpe Diem and then headed for bed early after last night, plus I had an early boat back to Phuket in what would be a multi-day trip all the way back to the states.