Baby monkeys-Cherating Day Three-August 2,2007

This was the day I was supposed to leave Cherating. Check out was at noon. I was wrestling with myself about whether or not to stay another day. I woke up and read on my porch for a little while. I went to the beach which was empty. I lay out on the beach, read my book, and went for a swim. It was just so peaceful and relaxing. I had the whole beach to myself. A gentle breeze was blowing. It just filled my soul with contentment.

After an hour or so, I walked over to Muda's cafe for a banana sandwich. I chatted with Muda for a little while and met another local guy named Nazri. Apparently, Muda had a little crush on me and didn't want me to leave that day. Of course, he couldn't remember my name, but that didn't matter. I'm pretty sure that Muda had shared his feelings with all of the locals because Nazri seemed to be aware of it. We laughed about it, and I told them I was thinking about staying anyways. I asked them if I could get back to the road from Muda's or if I had to walk back along the beach. Nazri pointed to a trail through the trees. I walked along the trail. When I approached the road, I saw some construction workers installing storm drains so I veered off the path thinking I couldn't pass them. This took me into some majorly overgrown grasses which I was sure was filled with snakes and those scary lizards. Then Nazri rode past on his scooter and told me I was going the wrong way, and I watched him take the path around the construction workers. I'm such a dingbat sometimes.

The next thing on my agenda was shopping. I had scoped out the shops the day before and had decided what I wanted to buy. During the 1 block walk from the beach to the main road, I had already 90% decided to stay another night. I bought a couple of t-shirts and little knick-knacks. I returned to the batik art shop and purchased a some beautiful, small batiks. Then, I went back to the art shop with the exquisite wood carvings. They had these Harley Davidson motorcycles which were made with a combination of wood and palm or banana tree leaves and then painted with very cool designs. I almost bought one for my Harley Davidson-loving uncle because it said "Harlay" instead of "Harley". But I didn't. The problem with going on a pseudo-backpacking trip is having to carry around all of your souvenirs, and I didn't think the Harlay would hold up well. Sorry, Frank.

As I said before, they had two baby monkeys in the shop. They were in the process of getting bathed. A little girl had come into the shop with her parents, and the owner brought over one of the freshly bathed monkeys for her to hold. I stood there sulking; forlorn that I wasn't holding a baby monkey too. OK. So she was 6 and I was 34. So what? I wanted a baby monkey too! I asked the owner if I could hold one. He said sure, but I would have to wait for the little girl to finish because the other one was a bit too agressive for strangers. I could live with waiting for a little while. Well the little while turned into forever. Her monkey was so cute. She was holding it while sitting down, cradling it in her arm. Its head was resting on her chest, and its little arm was resting on her belly. Since she was showing no signs of ever moving, the owner gave me the spaz monkey to hold. It was crazy. It kept trying to climb all over me, up my arm to the top of my head, jumping to my lap. The only reason it didn't get away was because I was holding it with a death grip in my other hand. I held psycho baby monkey for about 2 minutes and that was enough. I handed the monkey back to the owner and looked enviously at the little girl still sitting there with the sweet monkey sitting on her lap. Typical. I always get the crazy ones! But honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way.