Penang Through The Eyes Of The Rockstars – Monkey Business At The Botanical Gardens

Part of this is a story I told RMs in my daily commentary……

To catch a monkey (um, theoretically speaking. Of course.) you fill a jar with peanuts. The alpha monkey will be the first to call dibs on the treat, putting his fist in the jar. When he closes his paw around the peanuts however, he will not be able to remove his fist from the jar.

An interesting analogy about “letting go.” The monkey with his hand in the jar is free at any time, up until someone actually catches it, sticks it in a frilly skirt (or the kind of jacket Michael Jackson might have worn at one of his concerts), and teaches it to play a concertina. It has only to let go of the peanuts, and it will be able to take its hand out of the jar. Long ago I was told the most aggressive young alpha ones rarely do. They don’t let go of the prize, unable to see that it is not really a prize at all. It is this that allows the monkey to be caught, or to use a melodramatic term, “imprisoned,” you are “imprisoned” by your inability to let go (sorry ah, bit drama).

Thing is, it was never really a prize. It was bait. Being able to see this, and having the discipline to let go of the peanuts when you find yourself unable to remove your fist from a jar, is key to your freedom. If you’re a monkey. Older monkeys in the wild that have avoided getting caught for so long had either the benefit of seeing it happen to a more aggressive monkey or else they never fell for the bait.

Morals of the story: If you cannot let go, you get caught. If you don’t learn from history, you get caught too. But my absolute favorite is: It is far easier to say no to bait than to a prize. Being able to tell the difference means a lot to one’s happiness, so it’s worth the effort to working at being able to tell the difference.

Dis is Rockstar handing a monkey a banana

As for our own monkey experience, my parents weren’t sure if we were still allowed to feed monkeys at Penang Botanical Gardens, because in Penang a lot of the monkeys are like vermin, too many, multiply too fast, and wreak all kinds of havoc. (Last time we were here we watched one make off with a motorcyclists’ plastic bag of stuff. Not sure what was in it. Pretty sure he’s not getting it back.) But well, this is one of Kings’ things with Rockstar, like the jet skiing, when we come here…

We arrived to a small crowd of other people already feeding them, there were stalls selling fruit, not too many monkeys this time, and one of the dads there tells us you can actually feed them with your fingers and so Rockstar tried it. Little Miss was further away near the car, and we were all ready to dive back in if things went bad. My mum mentions the latest was someone reported two different species of simians being released – from the description local authorities had identified they were probably baboons. “So now they’re worried what the baboons will do to the local monkey population….”

Y-eah. So staying near the car. I don’t know why some of my friends are more afraid of dogs – you can keep dogs out with fences (unless it’s a border collie but then those aren’t really dogs).

PAISAY this is on the botanical gardens website:

“The Monkeys:

1) Do not feed the monkeys.

2) Do not eat as you walk – monkeys love food and are likely to snatch it from you.

3) If you come across some on the path you are walking on, do not fear. Be calm, wait for someone else to come by before proceeding or turn around slowly and walk away. Do not look at them in the eye or intimidate them in any way.”

Ok, unrelated pics –

Note Rockstar’s crestfallen face as Little Miss complains about being puled into a sleeping bag with him

Guess who? 😀

I found an old pic of what I used to look like, in my parent’s home… Didn’t know where to post so here it is… That haircut has two names: 1) My Hairstyle Of Choice 2) The Boyfriend Repeller (all the guys I dated hated it including Kings, who made me grow it out into at least a “longer” short style and of course when I stopped work he immediately had me grow it all the way long…) I also preferred glasses but one of my friends (also formerly from SM Hamid Khan taekwondo team) went into optometry here – on a trip back ages ago he did a thorough check and was the first to tell me glasses were in fact only correcting about 70% of my eyesight, for which he could however still prescribe me a pair (charged me only for materials, I might add)… Eventually I did then go for Lasik in Singapore (where I was based at the time) and my eyesight has been much better than with glasses since….