On Ko Lanta Yai, a small island in southern Thailand, a monkey and a cat are in love.
I discovered this affair while visiting this serene tropical paradise in the Indian Ocean. I was living in a two story bamboo hut at Lanta Marina on Long Beach (in Thai- Hat Phra Ae) for two US dollars a night (80 baht). It was just before high season and I practically had the whole beach to myself. I had been there for three days when the high season finally started and tourists began to flood in. Two of these tourists being Swiss nurses named "Karen"- (they were both named Karen). They were each kind, sweet, beautiful and their English was good. I met them while beach combing for seaglass, they asked me where a good place to stay was - and I pointed them in the direction of the bungalow operation I was residing at... Lanta Marina.
That evening at dinner, I met up with the Karens - we shared many beers under the bamboo structure on the beach, (complete with wood carved tables and a coral floor) which served as our dining hall. Later into the evening, by oil lamp light we (Manu, my German (next bungalow) neighbor, the Karens, and I) played Kniffle (the German version of Yahtzee). For most of the game, the blond Karen had a kitten sleeping on her lap.
here is where the story gets er... interesting...
Now, here is a little background info,
Lanta Marina is a small operation run by this nice Thai woman named Nita, and her brother, "Man" is the
tout. Their bungalows are
all natural, made from bamboo and wood - which is an oddity as the onslaught of commercialization is creeping onto these wonderful tropical islands. From my bungalow I can see Ko Phi Phi, the island where the movie
"The Beach" was filmed - now it is overrun with tourists and its pristine
white sand beaches are now littered with cigarette butts and concrete bungalows that seem to be popping up
exponentially. People don't want this to happen to Ko Lanta - as it is a
National Marine Park but it is happening anyway because rich tourists want the
comforts of home. So, one of
Lanta Marina's attractions is that it is preserving the
environment. The other is their pet monkey which is a small monkey tied to a tree by a rope (it has a little
shelter there too).
this is where it gets really interesting...
The next night, playing
Kniffle, Manu and the blond Karen came
keeled over laughing from their trip to the bathroom, which is located right next to the monkey tree. They tell the other Karen (in
German) something which makes her join the
hysterics. I can't even get them to stop for a second to find out what is going on. When they finally settle down, Manu says to me, "go look at the monkey".
Intrigued, I grabbed my flashlight and rush up toward the monkey, with the dark haired Karen in tow. Flashing the beam of light on the monkey... I see it holding the same kitten from the night before by the ears, facing one another with the kitten giving the monkey head.
Dumbfounded and sickened by this twisted sexual act, I shriek in
giddy laughter and run back to the dining area.
The next day, at breakfast, we laugh as a new visitor asks Nita about the monkey. Nita comes to our table half blushing knowing somehow that we know about the cat and the monkey... She says "The kitten came to the monkey one night because it didn't have a mother and it thought that the monkey was its mother, so it tried to get milk from the monkey". "Ha!" I cried out. "Isn't this wrong?" I ask. "Well," replies Nita, "they are both still babies and they don't know any better, now when the monkey cries, the kitten goes to it and when the kitten cries, it goes to the monkey." Yikes.
Apparently the love affair means more than just blow jobs...
Is this
abuse? I don't know, the monkey is the one tied up and the kitten goes to it ... I'm
confused too.