July 10, 2006
Today Jemma and I walked to the Jammu Temple (otherwise known as Monkey Temple) on the hill, a steep climb from the small town of Shimla. Along the way we saw puppies and monkeys....2 monkeys were sitting in a tree, one behind the other. The one behind was searching through the other's fur with his hands, finding little bugs, and then eating them. The one in the front looked as though he was getting a massage! When we reached the top, at the entrance to the temple, there were dozens of monkeys everywhere, big and small. One of them grabbed a lady's glasses right off of her face! She had to offer the monkey food to get him to drop the glasses! Then another monkey had found a water faucet, and he knew how to turn on the water and get himself a drink. After having a drink, he'd turn off the faucet, jump up to see if anyone was going to shoo him away, and when nobody did, he went back down to turn on the water and have another drink. He kept doing this, as I videotaped it!
Some of the monkeys were fighting pretty ferociously on the way up to the temple, so we never did make it all the way up. One woman on the way down said that she let two monkeys jump on her back, perch on her shoulders! I wouldn't have done that....all I need is to get a monkey scratch or bite and have to travel all the way back to Delhi on a butt-busting train for another 12 hours to get rabies shots! I thought she was nuts.
Tomorrow I leave in the morning in a Jeep with the two Spanish guys, who caught up with me here. We'll head to Dharamsala, home of the Dalai Lama in exile.
