Ep6- Galta Monkey Palace

  Jaipur, India
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

 
 
 
 


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Watch this episode here.

Justin wants to tell you about monkeys...

You can only adequately write about what you know, and what I know is that there are a lot of monkeys at Galta Palace. I do not know what kind of monkeys they are, or the preferred latin nomenclature that specifies their exact species. I do not even know if their presence on this mountain can truly be described as natural. What I can express to the reader, however, is that these monkeys are hungry. Hungry for the nuts that cost 10 rupees (but can be purchased for only 5), hungry for bananas, hungry for shoes, hungry for attention, hungry for each other, and starving to make your tenuous walk up this monkey mountain a most unforgettable experience. Let's face it, stealing anything you leave unattended and ripping your clothes aside, monkeys are cool. They gang up on goats, and attack each other both playfully and sexually. Monkeys have no shame, and these monkeys will do everything except pay your donation to the temple. They also have no problem doing all of these things with the same regard for your personal space that the rest of India respects, which of course is none what-so-ever.
While I was enjoying the views of Jaipur, they attempted to steal my colorful sneakers. Five feet away from me, they successfully stole my monkey viewing innocence (but were at least kind enough to do it while I was filming, hence a NC-17 revver rating). Still, in trekking up monkey mountain, my preferred moniker, the monkeys would only amount for one of the many sights to be seen. From a monk bathing in a hand carved waterfall, to watching the singing of prayers that still ring in my ear, every step of this palace offered the pallet a feast as stupendous as your average Indian enjoying a one pound cheeseburger.
I strolled up the steep steps, and like the air, things heated up as I approached the top. Like a sumo wrestler on your chest, the view did what such views are made to do. The entire city of Jaipur extended out in front of you, with mountain perched castles dangling on the edges. Homemade apple pie with a diamond crust. Not to mention that it was the second to last day of Jaipur's annual and immensely popular kite festival. I'll take rainbow toppings on my pie please. Living at the top of the mountain, a man and woman, looking as old as the 1,000 year fire that they keep alive, banged on drums and confessed the mountains inner secrets. It may have been more than incense burning, for I do not remember one word of it, but my gut is telling me it was as fascinating as a bard's tale. Before my departure, they laid me with a hand made necklace, woven together with flowers. For the first time since I landed in India, I was smelling okay (I still refuse to forgive the monkey that jumped on my chest and ripped it off my neck...).
I had ridden a bike there, but after the workout resorted to shoving it into the back of a tuk tuk. It wasn't necessarily comfortable, but then again i wasn't necessarily walking. I feasted like a monkey that evening, and fell asleep to the harmonious combination of prayers and monkey sex parading through my ears.