Highlight of my Krabi trip: Almost attacked by wild monkeys

by Sheila Chiang (Singapore)

I didn't expect to find Thailand

To move forward or abort? I was faced with a life-threatening decision during my holiday in Krabi, Thailand back in the summer of 2014. Krabi is a beautiful, laidback town that is not as commercialised or crowded with tourists as its counterpart, Phuket. It is a cheaper option and you can also access the same islands from Krabi. One of the highlights of Krabi is The Tiger Cave Temple. Oftentimes, this set of stairs is referred to as the Stairway to Heaven. 1,237 is not a small number, and glorious Buddha statues await your arrival at the peak. This temple complex not only serves as a religious site for the monks who live and worship there, but also features a maze of natural caves in an overgrown jungle valley where stone tools, pottery remains and the mold for making Buddha footprints have been excavated. At the end of it, you are rewarded with a breathtaking, sweeping view of Krabi Town. My friends and I had planned our entire trip around this, on top of island hopping and water activities. At 300 steps, I was dripping sweat. People were turning around, questioning if they even had the strength in them. I climbed on. I was halfway through my hike of 1,237 steps to the summit of The Tiger Cave Temple in Krabi, Thailand when a wild monkey swung into my path, its size easily more than half of my 1.55m frame. The wild monkey is no regular monkey. At least 50 of its underlings have gathered as they watched their leader try to corner me and make me surrender something in my hand. It was staring at the 1.5L plastic water bottle in my hand and baring its teeth and long nails if I tried to edge my way past it. It was ready to attack me and its tribe could subdue me easily. All along, I have only seen the animals at the zoo and they are relatively calm and reserved ones. I was not used to wild, ferocious ones and my image of these animals was quickly destroyed. I had two options: Give it what it wants and make a run for it or make my retreat down. Either way, the wild animal would not let me go with the bottle in my hand. But we had already climbed more than 600 steps and it was a shame to give up. We were not going to be beaten down by a handful of wild monkeys, right? We debated for 5 minutes while Monkey King sat there glaring at us, ready to spring an attack if we even move a toe. I was determined to reach the top with 3 other friends. In the end, we decided that half of the group will proceed and the other half will stay behind. 2 of us distracted the wild monkey and threw the bottle to it while the other 2 made a run for it and climbed the rest of the 1,237 steps and took pictures to commemorate when they reached the top. But it has always been something incomplete in my travel experiences. 5 years later, I still feel bothered by the incident but I would love to attempt the hike in the near future.