While asking the manager’s wife of the Guest House how to get to the Monkey Temple, she said cheerfully, “ It’s easy!” As we walked along the road that she directed us, it was the hardest path I have ever taken. The mountain path was so steep that we soon discovered it at an incline of over 30 degrees. Shimla was 2109 meters high and the Monkey Temple was 2455. Compared with the ground level, the air here was thinner, so it was easy for us to get tired, specially going uphill. I somewhat regreted of not paying for a horse ride to go up there.
However, the walking path was amazing. It stretched through a forest, in that you could smell the green grass and leaves everywhere. The walking was a pleasant forest-bath. And the closer we got to the Monkey Temple, the more monkeys we encountered.
At the very first section of the hike, only two or three monkeys peeked out from the bushes. The monkeys were afraid of humans. Once they saw people getting too close, the mother would pull back her children nervously and then run away. But later on, more and more monkeys kept showing up. Graduately, we realized that it was now the human beings afraid of the monkeys. They walked fearlessly and got very close by. Some of them stared at us with unfriendly eyes. Some of them thought that we were not much different from them, so they walked casually side by side with us. All of the sudden, two monkeys jumped onto my partner Leon. One bit his bag ( For they suspected there was food in it), and the other one held his waist. I was so scared that I screamed out loud. Leon also tried hard to get rid of them, but to no avail. These two monkey were just doing the usual things they do--- climbing, jumping, and swinging. But on a human being? No, not like that. I kept screaming. By that time, an old Indian man, who obviously knew what was happening, rushed down to us, holding a stick and shouting “ Hey, hey, hey,” trying to scare away the monkeys. He made it! We thanked him, although still in shocked, then rushed up to the Monkey Temple which was located on the top of the mountain.
The Monkey Temple was not that big and it was nothing special. But it just happened that there was one couple praying and a big monkey sittng in between them. Looking at the back of them, it was very interesting because it seemed both monkey and humans were praying. Just minutes ago, we were attacked by the monkeys so we were still in shock but amazed at what we were now seeing.
Every couple of minutes, we could still hear the same shout, “ Hey hey hey” coming from the Indian. We laughed so hard because you could just imagine some other travelers getting attacked along the path. The monkeys here just didn’t care about anyone. One local man was sitting on the fence outside the temple. Unexpectedly a monkey came, jumped up to him, and held his neck tightly. The guy shouted and yelled and pushed but nothing worked. Finally, he grabbed his sandal and hit the furry creature, forcing it to let go. We laughed so hard by watching this ridiculous situation that tears were streaming down our faces.
Thinking about what we had been through, we knew that the same path going downhill would bring us the same experience. By learning from the Indian, we picked up a strong branch on the ground and waved it anxiously to the monkeys, only hoping this would keep them off from us. This time, the monkeys were very smart and could tell that we had just learned our lesson. They kept a comfortable distance from us. However, there was quite another story for the family who passed us by and wanted to go up to the Monkey Temple. Their situation was exactly the same as our previous one. They did not have any idea of what to fear and nor did they know what to expect. So, of course, they didn’t protect themselves enough. A whole bunch of monkeys went over, surrounded them and robbed their bags. The three children and the mom were scared, so they cried, screamed and rushed up the hill all at the same time. The monkeys were just like robbers. They sat down in front of us, took their time to take out their newly found treasures and analyzed their profits. Being not able to find any food, they seemed quite disappointed, so they left the clothes lying all over on the ground. The father(whose face was now very pale) picked up the clothes with his shivering hands and ran up to his family. Although I was holding a branch in my hand, I still almost fainted when I saw the whole scene. It scared me so much that I staggered along the path and hurried up to move down hill. Leon said that he had never seen me walking so fast, which was very true.
When we got down the hill, there were only very few monkeys walking around. They were not so threatening anymore. Nothing could compare to our experience heading up the mountain. At this time, we met a European couple who were also going uphill, as happy as we were before when we started the trip----- so naïve! Trying to be helpful, we offered to give them the branches and told them there were many aggrassive monkeys up there. IT’S SCARY!
“ How come? Monkeys are very lovely. They are so cute.” they said, refusing to take the branches.
“ O.K. See you! Good luck!” We shouted back.
As we watched them heading uphill cheerfully, I told Leon that we should just wait there to see what sould happen. I bet when they came back, there were many scratches on their faces.
By the way, we finally figured out why there were so many types of beautiful carved sticks being sold everywhere in Shimla.
PS. Shimla is the summer capital of India. The Monkey Temple is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Shimla.
However, the walking path was amazing. It stretched through a forest, in that you could smell the green grass and leaves everywhere. The walking was a pleasant forest-bath. And the closer we got to the Monkey Temple, the more monkeys we encountered.
At the very first section of the hike, only two or three monkeys peeked out from the bushes. The monkeys were afraid of humans. Once they saw people getting too close, the mother would pull back her children nervously and then run away. But later on, more and more monkeys kept showing up. Graduately, we realized that it was now the human beings afraid of the monkeys. They walked fearlessly and got very close by. Some of them stared at us with unfriendly eyes. Some of them thought that we were not much different from them, so they walked casually side by side with us. All of the sudden, two monkeys jumped onto my partner Leon. One bit his bag ( For they suspected there was food in it), and the other one held his waist. I was so scared that I screamed out loud. Leon also tried hard to get rid of them, but to no avail. These two monkey were just doing the usual things they do--- climbing, jumping, and swinging. But on a human being? No, not like that. I kept screaming. By that time, an old Indian man, who obviously knew what was happening, rushed down to us, holding a stick and shouting “ Hey, hey, hey,” trying to scare away the monkeys. He made it! We thanked him, although still in shocked, then rushed up to the Monkey Temple which was located on the top of the mountain.
The Monkey Temple was not that big and it was nothing special. But it just happened that there was one couple praying and a big monkey sittng in between them. Looking at the back of them, it was very interesting because it seemed both monkey and humans were praying. Just minutes ago, we were attacked by the monkeys so we were still in shock but amazed at what we were now seeing.
Every couple of minutes, we could still hear the same shout, “ Hey hey hey” coming from the Indian. We laughed so hard because you could just imagine some other travelers getting attacked along the path. The monkeys here just didn’t care about anyone. One local man was sitting on the fence outside the temple. Unexpectedly a monkey came, jumped up to him, and held his neck tightly. The guy shouted and yelled and pushed but nothing worked. Finally, he grabbed his sandal and hit the furry creature, forcing it to let go. We laughed so hard by watching this ridiculous situation that tears were streaming down our faces.
Thinking about what we had been through, we knew that the same path going downhill would bring us the same experience. By learning from the Indian, we picked up a strong branch on the ground and waved it anxiously to the monkeys, only hoping this would keep them off from us. This time, the monkeys were very smart and could tell that we had just learned our lesson. They kept a comfortable distance from us. However, there was quite another story for the family who passed us by and wanted to go up to the Monkey Temple. Their situation was exactly the same as our previous one. They did not have any idea of what to fear and nor did they know what to expect. So, of course, they didn’t protect themselves enough. A whole bunch of monkeys went over, surrounded them and robbed their bags. The three children and the mom were scared, so they cried, screamed and rushed up the hill all at the same time. The monkeys were just like robbers. They sat down in front of us, took their time to take out their newly found treasures and analyzed their profits. Being not able to find any food, they seemed quite disappointed, so they left the clothes lying all over on the ground. The father(whose face was now very pale) picked up the clothes with his shivering hands and ran up to his family. Although I was holding a branch in my hand, I still almost fainted when I saw the whole scene. It scared me so much that I staggered along the path and hurried up to move down hill. Leon said that he had never seen me walking so fast, which was very true.
When we got down the hill, there were only very few monkeys walking around. They were not so threatening anymore. Nothing could compare to our experience heading up the mountain. At this time, we met a European couple who were also going uphill, as happy as we were before when we started the trip----- so naïve! Trying to be helpful, we offered to give them the branches and told them there were many aggrassive monkeys up there. IT’S SCARY!
“ How come? Monkeys are very lovely. They are so cute.” they said, refusing to take the branches.
“ O.K. See you! Good luck!” We shouted back.
As we watched them heading uphill cheerfully, I told Leon that we should just wait there to see what sould happen. I bet when they came back, there were many scratches on their faces.
By the way, we finally figured out why there were so many types of beautiful carved sticks being sold everywhere in Shimla.
PS. Shimla is the summer capital of India. The Monkey Temple is one of the most famous tourist attractions in Shimla.
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