On a hill near the center of Songkhla lives a colony of monkeys.
These funny, mischievous little bastards wander the surrounding streets hoping someone will feed them — and their hopes are usually fulfilled, as the locals still remember the pandemic times, when the macaques, lacking food they had usually had from travelers, became a danger for local people.
4:30 pm, a farang with a huge camera appears at the intersection. He feels hot, lazy, and sweaty, and he hopes this evil circus will show something special that will reward his persistence. He wipes the sweat from his face and begins to observe what is happening around him.
A hunchbacked lady is trying to break a street lamp, jumping on it as if possessed by demons.
A monkey teen is practicing on a palm tree.
A lone monkey, exploring a building...
I admire the ones who go off to explore buildings
alone or in pairs. Most macaques can’t imagine themselves outside the group — they constantly quarrel with one another, yet they also seem to have an unending need to touch their kin, groom each other’s fur, or at least hold someone’s tail. But monkey explorers seem different.
They’re not alpha males, who revel in dominance and control, being in the middle of crowd. Explorers have more refined personalities.
If I wanted to try making a friend among macaques, I would choose one of the explorers - they can see and understand more deeply.
What could be better than
picking parasites from a friend's fur? Especially in the evening, after a whole day of squabbles and fights — there’s something so satisfying about popping a louse with your fingernails - or teeth - or swallowing it. It doesn't matter what you do with the louse - everything is AWESOME!
If fleas didn't exist, they should be invented - that's what any monkey would tell you after a shot or two of Thai whisky.
Brute
A child, yet already knows how to give an evil look. Lol.
In the meantime, we have arrived at the main scene of the post.
This:
They were peacefully spending time together when one of the boys decided to mate. However, his friend got mad about that since he believed this girl was his fiancée (obviously):
Friendship is cracking.
The female ended up in the middle like if she wanted to prevent a real fight. But it didn't help much:
One of the boys was threatening another to bite his face off - it was super scary for the monkey, but, despite this, he didn't let the rival take his rightful fiancée.
The female, meanwhile, felt tired and bored, and actually upset - she desperately wanted to look for lice in someone's fur and crush a couple of fat nits with her small shiny black nails. And instead of a pleasant evening, she is dealing with this havoc.
Luckily, a human slammed a car door nearby, which attracted the monkeys' attention:
The rumble reminded them of the threat humans pose and the food they bring. This paradox captured the boys' thoughts — the rivals froze, trying to make sense of the puzzle, and soon forgot about their quarrel. Thus, the friendship between the three mischievous clowns was renewed.
All photos were taken with a Nikkor 70-300mm on a full-frame DSLR Nikon D750 by the author in March 2025, in Songkhla, Thailand