Macaques Monkeys
Searching for Macaques Monkeys in the jungles of Cambodia.
Its, October 2022 and International travel is only just starting to fire up, after a global Pandemic. Travel has been off limits and everyone has cabin fever. Do we travel or don’t we travel? there are mixed thoughts on heading overseas again for so many people. For me it’s not even a thought, I miss my friends, you only live once and I’m busting to get out of Adelaide, even if it’s for 10-12 days.
Two flights in and an extended stopover in Bangkok and I’m excited about the idea of travelling through the Cambodian countryside and the possibilities it will bring. I grab some dinner at a night market in Bangkok and call it an early night as I have a 6 am flight in the morning. Flights are ridiculously expensive at the moment, the cheapest option I could find left me with a couple of stops along the way. That’s fine a day in Bangkok is always interesting and always up for some new sights and sounds along the way. I have made this trip so many times in the past and am eager to see my Khmer brothers. Cambodia is in a bad way financially at the moment, due to International closures and my mind boggles as to what things are like now. I have a few friends that are Tuk Tuk drivers and they have been lucky to get a couple of jobs a week at best. Tourism is dead and so many people have been out of work for the past two years, leaving people in financial hardship.
My normal purpose when travelling to Cambodia is to work on Project Rice for Life, a program I developed in 2015 that helps assist struggling families living in rural Cambodia. We help feed, clothe and supply assistance to kids going to school in the area. On this trip, I will be travelling to Battambong and the western border of Cambodia and Thailand, an area I haven’t visited before. Wildlife, unfortunately, isn’t plentiful in Cambodia due to the struggles the country has endured over the decades. Much of the wildlife has been heavily hunted by villages and you have to look hard to find a lot of the species that are quite common throughout the rest of Southeast Asia. I was going to go straight back to Borneo but really needed to see my friends after a couple of years of absence.
I land in Siem Reap, clear customs and head out the doors and my brothers Suon and Bik are waiting for me. We spend a couple of days visiting friends and colleagues in and around Siem Reap and spend some time at a local school I have worked with over the years. It’s very quiet and things have changed since my last visit that’s for sure. The normal hustle and bustle, has turned into a few cars and scooters here and there. Nice for a traveller but not for the local economy.
Day four is an early start to the day, and I head out on the streets of Siem Reap and do a little street photography. Always some great opportunities with a camera with so many colourful personalities living in Cambodia. After a couple of hours, I head back to my homestay for a break with plans to head out in the afternoon to locate some wildlife. Suon and Bik will be my guides into the jungle and with their knowledge we hope to locate a family of Macaques monkeys living approximately 20kms west of Siem Reap.
Our first stop is a roadside market stall, selling fruits and beverages. Its 3 pm it’s hot, it’s sticky and if you don’t keep the fluids up you will find yourself slowly fading away with dehydration. When I say fluids I don’t mean a heap of beers as that,s a slippery slope in itself. Hydration is a must in Cambodia as the days can get up to 39C quite regularly and the humidity is savage. Having not long come out of an Australian winter the change in weather has been a bit of a shock to the system. We purchase some cold bottles of water and two large hands of bananas, which cost $2.50. That’s right we get 6x 600ml pack of water and around 5kg of bananas, all for a couple of dollars. Makes me realize how expensive everything is in Australia. Seems the whole covid thing has forced prices through the roof back home. Bik knows an area where he has previously sighted a family of around 20 Macaques monkeys and assures me we will have a good chance of spotting them again if they haven’t travelled too far into the jungle. The ride out there is bumpy and dusty, Cambodia is known for its very dusty roads when things dry out. The best trick is a bandanna or handkerchief tied around ya face. This will stop you from snotting out balls of mud in the coming days. The other factor is camera gear hates dust obviously. If you are sitting roadside taking images and have a vehicle pass it kicks up a shit load of dust around. Lens changes are not a great idea in this area otherwise you will be editing out loads of dust spots in post.
We head off the road and continue west along the lake area which is quite popular with locals during the holiday period, but today it’s deadly quiet. I get the feeling we aren’t going to see much but who knows our luck can change. They call Cambodia the Kingdom of “Wonder”, meaning you always wonder what the fu#k is going to happen from day to day. I first came to this country in 2001 and it was very different to now. Back then for me, it had a feeling of being a little like the Wild West and that’s what I fell in love with. Now it’s another one of those countries that the tourists have flooded to and kind of spoiled. I liked the old Cambodia where things were a lot more traditional.
We travel for a few more kilometres and Bik pulls to the side of the road and leaves some bananas hanging from a tree, around 4 feet of the ground. I’m thinking what the hell is he doing, these guys are going to have no idea they are here in 150 square kilometres of jungle. He makes a couple of loud calls in an indescribable tone and we continue along the road. My eyes are working overtime scouting the jungle and roadside to make sure I don’t miss an opportunity. We continue to travel in hope and ahead in the distance, I can see movement on the side of the road. It’s what we have come here for and I’m ecstatic. I can see a small group of monkeys walking along the outer edge of the jungle and leading the group is a large male (Kong). This fella is as solid as a rock with canines around 40mm long and walks with a confidence that makes me very weary. Known to be very aggressive/defensive he would give you a savage bite and that’s something I’m certainly not here for. Not recommended but my last travel shots were around 12 years ago so I’m taking no risks. The trick is to respect the wildlife, give it plenty of room and you should not have too many problems. I use the words SHOULD not very loosely.
We pull up on the road opposite the area of the jungle I spotted them and I grab my gear and position myself near a tree facing towards the edge of the jungle. There is around 6 Macaques monkeys on the edge of the road with at least another 15-20 visible in the upper canopy checking us out. Bik makes a number of strange calls and when I ask what’s with the calls, he said they will come out of the jungle as I’m calling them down. (Brother do you speak monkey?) He laughed. Over the next two hours we sit roadside between the lake and the jungle and its constant photos. They move out into the open for a short period and retreat to the jungle. Each takes an opportunity to check us out and to see if we have anything of interest. The Macaques family are as curious as ever. A few bananas keep them in the area and they are happy to stay in the jungle canopy above where we are positioned. I’m not much of an advocate for feeding wildlife but the boys seem to know best. They come within a metre of our vehicle and at times bicker with each other over a banana. No one is ever game to pull rank on the large male and he certainly runs the show, he is always in my peripheral vision. I don’t want to end up in the local hospital getting treatment for a bite.
It seems these guys have some type of order, the little ones stay high in the canopy and come down when the older male and females have checked to see we are no threat. In the meantime, BIK is keeping an eye out and warning away the ones that seem a little too aggressive for my liking. Laying low on the ground looking straight ahead it’s hard to see who’s sneaking up from the back or sides. The backdrop is dense and it’s hard to get the separation I would like with the images, but I make the most of the situation. This is the first time I have photographed monkeys in a dense jungle and quite often you are dealing with loads of obstructions. Getting a clean shot is challenging.
Monkeys is something new for me and I don’t have the formula for the best results and are making it up as I go. Are these going to be award-winning shots? Maybe not but is the experience something to remember, absolutely? I’m in my element and am enjoying the experience. After around two hours the tribe retreat to the jungle and are no longer to be seen. I can hear them crashing through the fowledge around four hundred metres away and the boys have seen they will not return. Time to head back to our homestay and take a look at my images, have a shower and enjoy a cold beer and a rest. Has been a fantastic day and I’m sure I got a couple of good shots.
I spent the next two days back in the jungle photographing the family of Macaques monkeys. On each return trip trying something different from lessons learned the previous day. It’s hard to take images in the jungle and when the monkeys were on the move it’s hard to keep up. Shooting up into the canopy rarely worked and the best opportunities were when they were out in the open and you could get down to ground level with them. The other issue in the jungle is light, it’s quite dark and at times the required shutter speed was hard to achieve without a ridiculous ISO.
There is plenty of locations around the world that offer better opportunities for Wildlife photography that’s for certain. Cambodia is a fantastic place if you are a landscape or portrait photographer and can give wonderful opportunities to capture stunning images. I have spent plenty of time previously photographing local villages and some of the folks were extremely photographic. I’ve included an image I snapped of a wonderful Khmer lady roadside.
Re; gear I’m using today is a Sony A7Riii and Sigma 150-600mm f/5.5-6.3 DG DN OS Sports lens. I also carry a small /cheap lightweight tripod to help with video. Is it the best combination on the market, absolutely not but is still capable of taking some nice images.
If you ever plan to travel to Cambodia check-in, I have some great contacts and Suon and Bik are great tour guides. Both the lads are former soldiers and will keep you safe at all times, which is very important is some of the provinces. You will be in great hands and their rates are very competitive.
Story to be continued…
I have attached a contact link for the guys. (inbox/message them they would love to hear from you. )
https://www.facebook.com/Suon2536
Below Macaques monkey images are straight out the camera un-edited.
