Monkeys

Today I moved from the guest house in Gangyi up into Mcleod proper. My new apartment is fabulous and I've properly landed on my feet. I haven't kitted out the kitchen yet, so at lunchtime I went to Mcllo Restaurant to eat Chilli Panir and memorise 11 new Tibetan words.

On the way back, as I approached my apartment, I could hear animal noises, like dogs fighting. When I arrived, I looked from the balcony and the trees and rooftops were full of monkeys. About 30 or 40, and at least half of them were baby monkeys. I think that two separate troops had coincided and were fighting over territory. Fighting meant biting each other into submission. Biting each other into submission whilst being suspended in the middle of a telegraph wire or on the branch of a tree.

While the big monkeys were fighting, the other monkeys were opening dustbins and throwing the contents around, knocking bricks off roofs, shaking trees to see if anything would fall out or terrifying the local Buddhist monks.

In the UK we had a problem with 'hoodies', which were gangs of bored trouble-making teenagers that loitered on streets letting down car tyres, putting windows through and attacking the occasional old person or French-exchange student. This gang of monkeys was basically the same, except they had more hair. I don't think I want them to be my friends any more.