Wat Thampla: Monkey Temple in Mae Sai

So, I just finished sorting our pictures and I'm now working on writing down all of the amazing memories from our trip in October...so until that happens, here is a post about two amazing events that happened before our trip - a visit to a monkey temple, and sports day with our school.  
At the end of the term in October, nine schools in the Chiang Rai province get together for a meeting and sports day.  Jon and I went with our school to the event, which was held at a school about 30 minutes away from Chiang Saen, near Mae Sai.

When we arrived, we were told that the first part of the day would be an awards ceremony where everyone would be speaking Thai, so we were free to explore the area surrounding the school.  A few of the teachers recommended that we check out a nearby temple – “They have a crocodile, and big fish, and so many monkeys – maybe one hundred” one of our coworkers told us in his limited English. 

Needless to say, a temple with those animals sounded enticing, so we walked over there as soon as we could.  The temple was in a very dramatic location, right at the base of a mountain.  We wandered around for a bit and took some pictures around the chedi and some of the small caves, but we were a little confused – we had yet to see any monkeys. 

Green Buddha?

Outside of one of the caves

As we turned back from the chedi, however, monkeys were suddenly everywhere as they came down from the jungle.  They covered the roof of the temple, and spread out all over the temple grounds.  As we walked back towards the main area, monkeys strolled in front of us.  It was truly a remarkable sight – there were baby monkeys, old monkeys, mama monkeys…they were hanging from buildings, eating corn cobs, wrestling each other in the trees.  We spent about an hour just watching the monkeys, amazed at how close we were to these wild animals!

Monkeys appearing on top of the temple!

          After awhile, we decided to check out a mysterious set of stairs heading up the mountain. The trip turned out to be much longer than we thought, as the stairs turned right and left, but when we reached the top we discovered our efforts were well worth it.  We were in a thin canyon, with sheer mountain faces on either side of us.  The sound of monkeys hooting at us could be heard all around us, but no monkeys could be seen.  A path led to a crevice in the mountain, where we took a small dark tunnel into a cave, using Jon’s iphone to light the way. Inside the cave were several Buddha images, as well as hundreds of bats above us.

Buddhas inside the cave

              After exploring the cave, we headed to an outlook located on the base of the mountain.  Fields and mountains extended as far as the eye could see, and we knew we were looking at a landscape made up of Thailand, Burma, and Laos.

After the voyage back down to the ground, we got a cold drink and decided to sit and relax for a bit by the pond.  Monkeys were still everywhere – our favorites being the baby monkeys playing in the tree near us.  Watching them throw each other to the ground and push each other’s heads down, we were reminded of the TV show American Gladiator.  Jon got up to take several pictures, so I sat alone on the bench, relaxing and enjoying watching the monkeys. 

       
             Suddenly, I heard a noise behind me.  Startled, I turned around…and a monkey had decided to join me on the bench! Completely nonchalantly, my new friend went about his business of licking his fingers and feet clean, while I sat there in shock.  I definitely had not expected to get this close to one of the monkeys!  Slowly, I turned in the bench so that I could at least keep an eye on my new friend.  We sat together for about thirty minutes, before some of the baby monkeys came by and my new friend left with one of them clinging to his belly.

We were almost ready to leave, but decided we wanted to feed the monkeys first – we were so grateful for all of the joy they’d brought us that we wanted to give something back! We bought a basket of peanuts, and I’ll admit the monkeys became a little intimidating at that point.  They quickly flocked towards us when we were holding the peanuts, and weren’t afraid to reach their hands up for a peanut.  In fact, when Jon took over the feeding, one monkey decided he was being too slow with the peanuts and reached to grab a handful of peanuts out of the bin itself!

Greedy monkey!

After feeding the monkeys, we decided it was time to head back to the meeting for some lunch.  We are so grateful that we had the opportunity to check out this temple, particularly as it is in a pretty isolated area, and is not a typical place for a tourist in Thailand to visit.  It definitely made us grateful that we are living in Thailand, as these experiences are an everyday opportunity for us, and we are extremely lucky to be in that position.