Monday, January 23, 2006
Monkey Temple
With so much stuff happening while I've been in India, I unfortunately haven't had the chance to keep up with this blog as much as I meant to. I'll be going back to New York on Friday and I still haven't gotten around to finishing the story from the first weekend I spent here over 3 weeks ago. I just returned from a trip to Goa, where I spent the last 4 days, and I was visiting Delhi last weekend so there's a lot to write about. Many of the things that happened before those trips aren't so fresh in my mind so after the Monkey Temple story I'll be skipping a few of the posts I initially intended to write to make sure I finish telling the major highlights before I have to go back home. To keep things chronological, I'll go back to where I last left off...
My third day in India started out early, for me anyway, at around 9am. One of our drivers recommended we visit a temple not too far from the city which he described to us as the "Monkey Temple". This was not because the temple has anything to do with Hanuman, the monkey god, but more due to the fact that there were hundreds of real-life banana-loving monkeys living all around the temple grounds. A few of the expats already planned the trip before I ever arrived but when I heard they were going it was hard to resist tagging along (I love monkeys!)
The trip was supposed to be roughtly 60km, or about 40 miles, which should not have taken very long with light Sunday morning traffic. We set off early thinking we'll be back by lunchtime, but that's not exactly how it worked out in the end. On the way there I finally stopped by a bank and got some local money and our driver stopped by the monkey bank (a.k.a. roadside fruit stand) and got some bananas for the monkeys. Despite the light traffic it took over 2 hours to get to the temple which probably means it was more like 100km instead of 60. The drive was pretty interesting however, as it was the first time I got to see Indian countryside instead of the crowded city streets.
The temple turned out to be located on top of a pretty large hill / small mountain, with a village at the bottom of the hill and a small town contained inside the temple walls. Once we got up to the top it took a while to drive around the crowded streets to find parking. We were on the lookout for monkeys but didn't see any until we finally got out of the car in the lot behind the temple. The first monkey was hanging out on the fence near the parking lot so when we spotted him our driver got the bananas and we went over for a closer look.
As we got closer, it became clear this wasn't the cute animal we were expecting to see. This monkey was pretty big, big enough to be a little intimidating, and missing a foot, which didn't seem to bother him very much but made him look even scarier. Our driver was undeterred and decided to start feeding this beast. I always thought the fact that monkeys love bananas was kind of a stereotype but it turns out it's actually true. Once this monkey saw the huge wad of bananas he got pretty excited and came right up to us asking for more. To get rid of him we had to stash the bananas in the back of a random guy's car in the lot and head up to the temple to look for more, hopefully less intimidating, monkey friends.
The temple was actually very interesting in its own right so I took lots of pictures. And it wasn't long until we ran into more monkeys. This is where the trip went a little sour. Our driver was really excited about making sure we got our money's worth, so to speak, so he decided to do everything he could to ensure we saw as many monkeys as possible. The afternoon was pretty hot, and the monkeys were mostly relaxing in the shade, not being very active, so he decided to get them going by throwing bananas all over the place to get them to come out. As I mentioned before, this was a temple, and everyone else there besides us was there for religious purposes, not to see monkeys run around and grab bananas. Consequently, people were a little upset that he was throwing bananas on top of tents where they were trying to escape the afternoon sun and we felt very awkward since he was doing all this out of some misguided desire to entertain us. We actually tried to get him to stop and told him several times that we've seen enough monkeys but he was difficult to convince.
Luckily, after awhile our driver went off somewhere and we were left on our own for awhile to wander about and explore the area. I took lots of pictures while we were there so I won't go into much detail trying to describe it again. Since the place ended up being so far away, we naturally didn't get back by lunch, so we ate on the way back at a small Indian restaurant at the bottom of the hill.
Pretty much every restaurant in Hyderabad is actually an Indian restaurant. Even if they serve other cuisines there is usually a lot of Indian choices on the menu. The Indian food here is pretty amazing as well. I hate to say it but it's much much better than back in New York. I was a bit worried that after a while I would get tired of eating Indian but even though I've had it practically every day I still want more. I will definitely have to find some quality Indian food when I get back home.
Well, that's it for my first weekend in India, I finally managed to write it all down! It was a pretty amazing time and still only the beginning.
My third day in India started out early, for me anyway, at around 9am. One of our drivers recommended we visit a temple not too far from the city which he described to us as the "Monkey Temple". This was not because the temple has anything to do with Hanuman, the monkey god, but more due to the fact that there were hundreds of real-life banana-loving monkeys living all around the temple grounds. A few of the expats already planned the trip before I ever arrived but when I heard they were going it was hard to resist tagging along (I love monkeys!)
The trip was supposed to be roughtly 60km, or about 40 miles, which should not have taken very long with light Sunday morning traffic. We set off early thinking we'll be back by lunchtime, but that's not exactly how it worked out in the end. On the way there I finally stopped by a bank and got some local money and our driver stopped by the monkey bank (a.k.a. roadside fruit stand) and got some bananas for the monkeys. Despite the light traffic it took over 2 hours to get to the temple which probably means it was more like 100km instead of 60. The drive was pretty interesting however, as it was the first time I got to see Indian countryside instead of the crowded city streets.
The temple turned out to be located on top of a pretty large hill / small mountain, with a village at the bottom of the hill and a small town contained inside the temple walls. Once we got up to the top it took a while to drive around the crowded streets to find parking. We were on the lookout for monkeys but didn't see any until we finally got out of the car in the lot behind the temple. The first monkey was hanging out on the fence near the parking lot so when we spotted him our driver got the bananas and we went over for a closer look.
As we got closer, it became clear this wasn't the cute animal we were expecting to see. This monkey was pretty big, big enough to be a little intimidating, and missing a foot, which didn't seem to bother him very much but made him look even scarier. Our driver was undeterred and decided to start feeding this beast. I always thought the fact that monkeys love bananas was kind of a stereotype but it turns out it's actually true. Once this monkey saw the huge wad of bananas he got pretty excited and came right up to us asking for more. To get rid of him we had to stash the bananas in the back of a random guy's car in the lot and head up to the temple to look for more, hopefully less intimidating, monkey friends.
The temple was actually very interesting in its own right so I took lots of pictures. And it wasn't long until we ran into more monkeys. This is where the trip went a little sour. Our driver was really excited about making sure we got our money's worth, so to speak, so he decided to do everything he could to ensure we saw as many monkeys as possible. The afternoon was pretty hot, and the monkeys were mostly relaxing in the shade, not being very active, so he decided to get them going by throwing bananas all over the place to get them to come out. As I mentioned before, this was a temple, and everyone else there besides us was there for religious purposes, not to see monkeys run around and grab bananas. Consequently, people were a little upset that he was throwing bananas on top of tents where they were trying to escape the afternoon sun and we felt very awkward since he was doing all this out of some misguided desire to entertain us. We actually tried to get him to stop and told him several times that we've seen enough monkeys but he was difficult to convince.
Luckily, after awhile our driver went off somewhere and we were left on our own for awhile to wander about and explore the area. I took lots of pictures while we were there so I won't go into much detail trying to describe it again. Since the place ended up being so far away, we naturally didn't get back by lunch, so we ate on the way back at a small Indian restaurant at the bottom of the hill.
Pretty much every restaurant in Hyderabad is actually an Indian restaurant. Even if they serve other cuisines there is usually a lot of Indian choices on the menu. The Indian food here is pretty amazing as well. I hate to say it but it's much much better than back in New York. I was a bit worried that after a while I would get tired of eating Indian but even though I've had it practically every day I still want more. I will definitely have to find some quality Indian food when I get back home.
Well, that's it for my first weekend in India, I finally managed to write it all down! It was a pretty amazing time and still only the beginning.
