Monkey Temple & Birthday BBQ

For the past two days, I've been doing the Orientation on Idex, what is Idex and it's partner NGO Saarthak. It's interesting having a better understanding of the organization, especially when this is an industry that one day I may like to work in. It's also been nice to have a proper Hindi lesson and to meet some of the volunteers who are going down to the other village areas of Idex. Yesterday was also Jimena's birthday. At breakfast I gave her a spa package with a facial, massage and hair spa. Then right after orientation we grabbed a tuk tuk down to the Monkey Temple. It is a collection of temples, one for the Sun God and one for the Monkey God, Hanuman and there are monkeys EVERYWHERE. We had a 14 yr old boy for a guide and he was pretty hilarious. You purchased peanuts at the bottom of the climb and anytime during it, you could feed the monkeys. They would walk right over to you and take the shells out of your hand. It was magical!! At one point, we were standing overlooking the scenery and I felt a hard tug on my pants from behind - turned around and sure enough a little rat rat monkey was there, looking for fooooood. So adorable. But it scared the crap out of me. Another time, I threw a peanut to a smaller monkey and a larger one jumped on it's back and bit it and stole the food. It was terrible to watch. We made sure that monkey got a handful of peanuts once the larger one had left, but as the guide assured us, it is their nature... And finally, while we were walking down, there were people coming up with banana's for the monkeys. So we were able to give them banana's too and they loved them. I think we will go back as we missed the monkey pool due to timing. Afterwards, seven of us went out for dinner for Jimena's birthday to Barbeque Nation. There, they bring you 'starters' which are skewers of chicken, mutton and fish and a pile of sauces until you can eat no more. You turn your flag down to signal to them that you don't want anymore and only then do you start the buffet. The buffet reminded me of the one at Ivory or East India Co. in Winnipeg. But the best part, the BEST PART (can you tell my excitement), was the vanilla ice cream with fudge sauce and these donut bites that are served a hot syrup. OH MY GAAWD. I had three bowls.

Our guide in the temple with Hanuman.

Hanuman

Barbeque Nation!!

Happy Birthday Jimena!