B-A-N-A-N-A-S!

For the first time in a long, last weekend I had no plans to leave town.  No plans to travel.  No plans to work.  No plans.  But in Thailand, if you look, there’s always something to see or do waiting just around the corner.  So, what began as an uneventful Saturday afternoon turned out to be a pretty cool experience that I’m sure I won’t forget.  Just 10 km outside of town is the Surat Thani "Monkey College".  For 100 baht (about $3 US), you can take a tour and see how they train the monkeys (Pigtail Macaques) to become professional coconut collectors on farms.  I got to watch these little guys climb up 50 ft palm trees, pick, retrieve, sort, collect, and peel coconuts at their trainer’s command.  The trainer, Somjai, was great.  She was friendly and she assured us that all of the monkeys are taken care of professionally and ethically.  Over the course of an hour the monkeys did several demonstrations and there were plenty of hands-on opportunities to get up close and take pictures with them.  Maybe I should've gone to monkey college.  It would've only taken me four months instead of six years to graduate and I'd get to work outside all day.

I'm takin' em with me!