One misty morning we headed 10 kilometres out of Jaipur’s city centre to find the Monkey Temple.
We were greeted by goats, cows and of course monkeys - in abundance.
As soon as we pitched up 2 young brothers introduced themselves and offered to be our guides and protect us from the monkeys - all for the equivalence of a pound. How could we refuse?
Rishi and Naran were good guides, they loved the monkeys and helped us avoid the Babas’ who try to rip you off. Rishi was especially good with the monkeys and wanted to be a vet, but I guess life won’t give him that chance. He told us about all the animals and birds we saw and showed us videos of leopards which they had seen on the path we walked. Thankfully we did not meet them. There is known to be 46 leopards living in the locality, they come into the temple area to hunt the dogs and monkeys.
As we climbed up we passed lots of the local children kite-flying into the mist.
There are many temples within this mountainous site and a natural spring that flows down from the hilltop. The water from the spring fills up many water tanks which are considered very sacred and the pilgrims visiting the temple bathe in the holy water.
A newly married couple were on their way to the temple to be be blessed.
The boys were clever and tricked us into buying them dinner, but for 20p we thought it was funny. Telling us we had to pay the Baba a small fee for the temple, which transpired was a small bowl of Dahl for them each.
The boys were actually working for a gang who were operating as you went in through the gate. However, they were so charming and this is all their life is right now, we were more than happy to pay them well and enjoyed their lovely company and everything they taught us. At the ages of 14 and 12 life has forced them to grow up too early.
The monkey’s cheeks are rammed with the peanuts we fed him.
So now it’s time to bid farewell to Jaipur and all its wildlife. We throughly enjoyed our time here.