Treeful of Monkeys

That would be a good name for a band, dontcha think? That inspiration came to me when we were staying in Langkawi, because just about every afternoon/evening when we were there, monkeys would start to appear in the trees near the pool. It became a nightly ritual to watch the monkeys--mostly macaques, but also dusky leaf monkeys (which were much more shy but noticeable because of their bright white eyes and lips). While driving around the island, we would sometimes see groups of them sitting by the side of the road, and when we went to visit a nearby waterfall, we were close enough to reach out and touch a bunch of them (which would not have been advisable, by the way--they're cute little buggers and eerily human-like, but they've got some big, sharp teeth). While they generally kept their distance, when we checked into our hotel they told us to be sure to always keep the door to our balcony latched because otherwise monkeys would come in and steal from our minibar. Sure enough, one night we were out on our balcony and we saw a macaque scurrying along the balconies below us. All of a sudden it vanished, and someone who was watching from a better angle told us that the monkey just pushed someone's door open, ate from their fruit bowl, and raided the minibar. A few minutes later he emerged with a jar of nuts in his hand and proceeded to open the jar and eat the nuts, carefully discarding the shells over the edge of the balcony. Here are some pictures from around the island: