I visited the Udaipur Monsoon Palace in Udaipur, Rahastan, India last year with G Adventures (The whole India trip was amazing! You should check it out).
I absolutely loved India, which surprised me because I was kind of scared to go there. The impression I had of India from the media wasn’t great – I thought it was going to be this terrifying place where everyone was out to harm me. That’s why I chose to travel with G Adventures – to take my worries out of the equation – and they did an awesome job.
Yes, there are things you need to be aware of to stay safe, but it really wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. I felt really safe the whole time, with just one exception.
The monkeys
In the cities, the monkeys didn’t worry me too much. Whilst they tend to travel in packs, they stick mostly to the rooftops – you can just catch a glimpse of fur swinging between buildings now and then. I barely paid the monkeys any attention at all until arriving in some of the smaller towns, like Udaipur and Pushkar.
Udaipur Monsoon Palace
One morning in Udaipur, the Venice of the East (it is stunning – you really should go!), some friends and I took a tuk tuk up to the Udaipur Monsoon Palace (or Sajjan Garh). The palace was built to watch the monsoon clouds – hence the name – and has amazing views of the city’s lakes, palaces and surrounding countryside.
We arrived at the palace before opening time, and so there were few other tourists around – two, to be precise. We had the palace to ourselves and the four of us wandered happily towards the entrance.
And then he saw us…
And then he saw us. The alpha monkey. Standing tall and beating his fists on his chest (yes, really!) before he ran towards us full speed. I had previously thought of the monkeys as quite small, but maybe they were just far away. This one was huge. And only a few metres away.
He bared his teeth, moving a few quick paces towards us before pausing and snarling again. With every advance, we quickly backed away as a terrified group of four. Eyes locked on the monkey and too shocked to think, we retreated down a steep, deserted dirt track away from the palace. The alpha monkey’s second in command looked on, beating his chest in the background (Seriously – I thought only King Kong did that?!) as the main man continued to move towards us.
I have genuinely never felt so threatened in my life. Logically, the four of us outnumbered the monkey. We were each bigger than the monkey. We should have had the upper hand, but we didn’t. The expression on the monkey’s unnervingly human-like face told us he wasn’t to be messed with!
One of the other palace visitors – an Indian guy in a smart shirt – ran boldly over to the monkey, clapping his hands loudly in his face. To my immense relief, it turned out this nice Indian man was more alpha than the monkey. Though clearly grumpy at the premature end to his bullying antics, the monkey backed off, returning to his spot on the palace wall.
I swear that guy saved our lives!
We stayed only ten minutes too look around the palace. Now with a deep fear of monkeys, a palace which appeared to be home to a few hundred was no longer appealing.
On returning to Udaipur we shared our ordeal with our guide, who was shocked and swore that he had never heard of that happening before.
Avoiding the monkeys
So… I definitely recommend visiting Udaipur – it was one of my very favourite places in Rajasthan (I thoroughly recommend the G Adventures India on a Shoestring trip if you want to see more of India as well), and do go to the Udaipur Monsoon Palace! The deserted building is fascinating and a great place to take some less ordinary photos. But I would suggest that maybe you visit later in the morning when there is likely to be a stronger human:monkey ratio. And don’t take any food with you!
That said, if you do happen across the chest-beating alpha monkey, please send him my regards… from the girl who lived.
I’ll be honest – this article contains affiliate links, which means I will get a small commission (at no extra cost to you) if you decide to buy. Integrity is really important to me, so I only recommend products that I really love! Of course, do your own research and if you have any questions or need some advice, please feel free to get in touch – I’d be happy to help!
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