Monkey Around

Yesterday, I was driving home from the grocery store and passing an area called Ulu Kelang. I call the roadway, on which I was traveling, by the same name.

I’m driven crazy by the fact that it is spelled three different ways. Hulu Kelang, Ulu Kelang and Ulu Klang. But I adapt. Sometimes I’m working hard at pronouncing the “H”sound. Or drawing out the word “keelang.” Other times I don’t work hard at all.

Back to yesterday.

I happened to notice something on the road just outside the high speed lane. Sort of pushed up against the barrier.

Roadkill is not uncommon here. It happens. Just like it happens everywhere.

Bodies of cats, dogs and monitor lizards are often left on the road, in this lovely equatorial heat, for a few days. Me no like. I do not want to be driving down a street, day after day, and see a form get flatter and flatter. Or smaller and smaller. Especially if they’re puppies.

This unfortunate victim was a monkey.

I have been known to question many things. Usually not rocket science puzzles. But the things that really make me curious.

Like why do we spell refrigerator one way and fridge another? Why did the “d” appear?

Why have I never, ever seen a baby squirrel? Our backyard was loaded with squirrels, the huge maple tree being a safe haven, when I was a kid. Never saw a baby.

I’ve also often wondered, since living here in Malaysia, about the monkeys. I’d never seen a dead monkey. Even though there are bunches of them. Not that I wanted to see one! I just wondered.

Where do monkeys die? Do they go deep in the jungle? Do they die of old age? Does the clan take a dead body and bury it somewhere?

Unless a person is a city dweller most folks are probably living pretty close to the jungle.

But I never heard anyone ever saying that they saw a dead monkey.

Well, I don’t have to wonder anymore. Some of my questions were answered.

And then I started thinking.

It’s sort of sad that a monkey gets hit by a car on a highway.

A lot of people here do not like the monkeys. They can be cheeky. Sometimes scary.

I personally steer clear of their groups near the golf course and mostly watch their antics from the safety of my car.

I’ve heard the stories of them entering houses. Going in the fridge. Doing this. Doing that.

Why wouldn’t they?

My friend recently looked up to see one in her kitchen. Her scream sent him scampering upstairs to escape. She then found the second one sitting on her son’s bed opening a bottle of moisturizer.

It’s still sad that a monkey should be on a busy roadway. And die as a result.

It’s a jungle out there.