India: Monkey Temple

Monkeys bathing.

Feeding the monkeys.

In Jaipur, I visited the Monkey Temple (Galta). As soon as my auto rickshaw pulled up the road, some young boys started running. It turns out, they wanted to be my guides. At first, I refused. I bought some peanuts (monkey food) from the vendor and started heading to a nearby water trough where monkeys were bathing. (I was already in heaven.)

The boys followed and one warned me to put the peanuts in my bag or the monkeys might attack. Hmm, good advice. I had actually heard about instances of monkeys attacking tourists, and I really wanted to avoid that. It was then that I decided I might as well have some guides, even though I wasn't quite sure what it would cost. (Yes, maybe I should have come to a set price at that point before we even started.)

So my knowledgeable guides led me up the path to the temple. They were three boys of about 8 or 10 years old. The one positioned himself as the leader. A second took up the role of the welcome committee. "Where are you from?" he asked. "USA," I replied. "George Washington. He was the first president of America," the boy said. And the questions continued: "Where is your family? ... Are you married?" (a VERY common question throughout the trip, followed by a look of shock and "Do you have a boyfriend?") "How many brothers and sisters do you have? ... Is he married? ... You have a nephew? ... What kind of alcohol do you drink? ... You drink only beer? You don't drink whiskey? Do you drink wine?" And on and on. (Yes, the 8-year-old asked me about alcohol. It seemed to be on his list of go-to questions for tourists.)

My guides (wearing my sunglasses).
I'm pretty sure they came straight out of "Slumdog Millionaire."

We paused at a lookout point, from which you could see the city. The Leader boy took some peanuts and showed me how to feed a monkey. Then he gave me some peanuts so I could try to feed them. Then, he offered, "I take your picture?" I paused, then decided I was PROBABLY safe to hand him my camera. He took photos of me feeding the monkeys, then quickly switched the camera to the view function and showed me the results. (It was at this point that I realized these guys were slick. The kid knew how to work a digital camera better than my mom does — sorry Mom. They obviously did this ALL the time.) Then the Leader grabbed my sunglasses, put them on his head and said, "You take a picture of us." So they posed for me.

Stop at a small temple.

We continued up the path, and they led me to a small temple in which a religious man played some music with us and gave me a religious mark (tika) on my forehead.


On the way back down, we saw even more monkeys. They showed me how you can scare the monkeys and make them hiss at you. They showed me how to get the monkey to eat the peanut straight in his mouth from your hand (as opposed to the monkey taking it from your hand with its hand).

As we approached the last turns of the path, the boys stopped to negotiate with me. "You pay us before we get to the bottom. When we get to the bottom, lots of boys will come over and want to be paid, but we are the ones who were your guides." I asked how much, and the Leader said, "You pay us what you want to." So I gave each 100 rupees, which I considered to be a very generous amount. (I think if he had named an amount, he would have named less. But I didn't want to feel I was cheating them. Obviously, this negotiating tactic worked out well for them.)

Feeding the monkeys.
(Someone had also left carrots and cabbage for them.)

As we continued down the path, another boy said, "There is a stand at the bottom. You buy us chips and drinks." Sigh. How can I deny the boys a 20-rupee drink? (20 rupees = 50 cents) They debated for a few minutes and then decided two of them wanted drinks and one wanted chips. I wondered if the owner of the stand gives them a cut, but I bought them what they asked for.

More expensive than if I had trekked up alone? Certainly. But in the end, I spent less than $10 for an experience with three cute Indian tour guides that I'm not likely to forget.

To see more photos from my time in Jaipur, go here.

Monkey eating peanuts.