It's the second impressions that are really the lasting ones

My first monkey sighting in the wild happened today, and was extremely brief. I was trying to figure out how to overtake a couple with three small children shambling their way up a narrow mountain trail and there it was, a red-faced monkey nimbly scampering along a tree branch below us, coming to take a closer look. Interesting, I thought. Cute!

These thoughts lasted for about two seconds, after which time a thundering, crashing noise of branches breaking and leaves thrashing about came from above. This noise was complemented by a completely uninhibited howling-screaming-growling banshee-like sort of noise, all emanating from a much, much larger version of the same monkey hurtling and leaping down the hillside at full speed. This was my second sighting of a monkey in the wild, and was infinitely more interesting.

After chasing away the first monkey, flashing its ample red bottom in the process, it turned back to us and made for what was apparently its true coveted object. This was the boy, about age six I'd say. I'm not sure why, but it could have been the neon pink knapsack. To his credit, the terrified child did not completely freak out, instead making a hasty strategic move behind his father, and after a bit of chess-like manoeuvering (picture very, very fast chess) the monkey gave up and sulked off.

This occurred in the Arashiyama Monkipaaku Iwatayama, which I'll just call The Monkey Park. It's like a game reserve for monkeys, except rangers feed them from a central station so they kind of hang around. After this introduction, however, it was pretty smooth sailing, and I have to say, watching baby monkeys' rough-and-tumble play is pretty darn cute. It's just like on the nature programmes, really, except you can't turn them off, you just have to decide when you're going to walk away and probably never get to see this again.

Anyway the best thing about The Monkey Park is that by the feeding station, there's a cage where the more cautious (which I can now say with confidence includes recently charged-at six-year-olds) can watch the monkeys from safety. The monkeys, of course, are crawling all over the cage, checking out the contents. This made for a fabulous sight, take my word on it. This is how all zoos should be, in my opinion, with the humans in the cages and the animals on the outside.