Save them somebody

I've been working in Sungai Ramal the past week or so. Not really working but I'm the driver. Taking some guys to Sungai Ramal Dalam, where they put the finishing touches to a double story house. My guys are working on the doors. Some other contractor is doing the glass windows and yet others were doing the plastering. Fiber glass style. With that white stuff whatchamacallit.

The property was part of a larger plot of land,, divided into smaller lots, but perhaps a quarter acre each or less,, I'm not sure. Some houses has been completed and already lived in. Some plots are still empty and some like the one I'm working on are work in progress.

Surrounding the place is jungle , or what used to be, a jungle. The jungle too has been cut off. A road is now its perimeter. Not a proper road, although tarred but it looks like the road in front of my government servants` quarters we used to live in Jitra until the early 70's. There are many houses already but the house we are working on is about a half kilometre off the main road. But the whole area is surrounded by developement and highways.

Wondering where this is heading? Here it comes. Its the macaques. There may be about 15 or twenty of them here. Not even a troop.. a patrol maybe. I saw them the 2nd day I was here. They are familiar with humans but being wild would scuttle away when approached. They would jump from branch to branch as monkeys usually do, but they did something their ulu cousins don't do. They can "walk" on electric cables. Even on all fours, they still remain on top the cable, not under it. Whats so great about that? You might ask. Nothing really, accept that they can be electrocuted.

I saw them raiding somebody's garden yesterday. I saw how the monkey chose his chikus. By biting the chikus!!! This afternoon, while returning from buying lunch for our boys, I heard a loud rustling of leaves. I put my gaze upwards and saw a large male showing his fangs. My eyes followed his stare. He was aggresively warning another male. Guess what I saw is two monkeys doing their thang! With a jealous partner watching. No wonder. The second monkey didn't wait to find out what's coming for his free service to the first lady monkey.

For the record, this is the second time monkeys did their thing for my perusal. The first time was in Port Dickson. At the light house area. Back when glass was selling well. The monkeys were doing their thing on my van's kanggaroo bar!!! hahahaa But its also a sad sight to see monkeys biting into rubber seeds!

Yesterday, the contractor doing the windows brought some rambutans and langsats. The rambutans weere quite big and they were very sweet and full of water and the seed is small. The langsat were not so good yesterday, maybe its because he must have pluck them too early. They were a bit sticky and sour and hard. Today the langsat were better, soft and juicy.

Anyway, today the fruits were not popular today. They were many left. Or maybe he brought more today. A thought strikes me. Why don't I give these fruits to the monkeys. I did a whatshername gorilla in the mist movie lady. I lay the fruits on the road side right below where they were looking for food. Trust me, there's not much monkey food left in that small miserable area I refer to as a jungle. It was quite a while before one of them caught sight of the langsats. But he saw me, sitting across the road. I moved a little bit. He still maintained his distance from the fruits. Not coming down. I move a little bit more. Turning my bck to him. He still maintain the same position.

I place my self behind a young mangosteen tree. After a few minutes the monkey began to descent lower and closer to the juicy langsats. In the end he was pushing the unpeeled langsats into his cheeks!! What a sight. Made me wish I have a camera with me. Then a couple more monkeys saw the feast waiting for them and they too drop down to road level, I remained calm and not moving. Not wishing to disturb the poor devils. Now there were three little monkeys stuffing their cheeks and also holding what they can with one hand or should I say,, limb? Never mind.

As soon as they had their mouths and hands full, they clambered up, back to the safe distance they are comfortable with. Then , yet another monkey came down only to get whats left of the langsats. And also another came down. Altogether there were five who savoured the fruits. It was the sight of them biting rubber seeds that got to me.

I asked the guy with the dusun if he can bring more fruits tomorrow. No chance. Today's my last day. I completed my job. "Too bad , poor monkeys" I thought. I don't know whats going to happen to them monkeys.

One thing for sure is that humans are the ones who went into monkey territory, not the other way round. I hope somebody reading this can do something.