today, i was chased by a monkey

I took a walk after lunch today in hopes of finding places that offer hatha yoga classes. It's harder to come by than you'd think, being India and all. There are dozens of ashrams here in Rishikesh, but the one where I am currently staying does not offer hatha yoga in favor of Vedanta (a form of Hindu philosophy), chanting, meditation, etc. I was walking along, annoyed by the incessant honking of horns (WAY worse than NYC), thinking... I should find a quieter, smaller village to go to after my vipassana course. (I got the green light to go to the course in Dehradun, July 5-16!) I've yet to tell the Dayananda ashram people that I'm cutting my visit short. It's nice here, scenic and relatively calm, but I really don't fit in. It's not what I'm seeking, not for a whole month anyway.

But I digress. I was walking along, hot and sweaty, when I came to a bend in the road that was less busy than most. I spotted a monkey (a lemur, I thought but Amanda the primate expert told me they are actually macaques). I'd seen these prior, but always from a bus. This was a perfect photo op. It was a mama with a cute little baby attached to its front. I pulled out my camera and snapped a couple shots but kept trying to get a better one. More and more monkeys appeared. And then, they were surrounding me. I backed away slowly. The biggest one started chasing me, at which point I ran away screaming. He kept following me, making a terrible noise. I was afraid he'd bite me and I'd get rabies and that would be the end of Michelle. I almost threw my big plastic water bottle at him, but didn't. He finally left. One of the ubiquitous blue open-air mini-cabs pulled over and picked me up. In it were two teenage boys and the driver. We all laughed at me. I was panting. It was really scary, actually. ("Ha-ha, stupid American girl.") But I was laughing too, so it was okay. The monkeys are literally chasing me out of Rishikesh.

Lesson learned: Do not photograph wild monkeys!