Monkey festival in Nha Trang Vietnam
16/05/08 (GMT+7)
Monkey festival in Nha Trang, Long Phu Tourist Company will hold a monkey festival titled "Hoa Qua Son" festival on June 1 featuring the story of the legendary monkey warrior Sun Wokong in Hon Lao or Monkey Island, an area of 33 hectares located at Nha Phu Lagoon, North of Nha Trang City Vietnam.
Hon Lao is about 15 minutes by boat from Luong Son beach. All-in-one tickets are available which include the boat ride, entrance fee for the park and circus entry ticket.
Coming to the festival, the children will have a chance to play games such as painting the clay statues, meet the characters in the story of the monkey warrior, ride the orstrich, kayaking and see the monkeys.
A troop of 800 monkeys live in this island, all of them are friendly and are cared for by a management staff that is responsible for taming them, as well as preventing the spread of any disease.
Although the monkeys are tame they should still be treated with prudence. The monkeys will occasionally grab items, or scratch out if they are approached in a way that makes them panic. During our fact-finding trip we observed that because the monkeys were so friendly the tourists petted them and held them, and then the monkeys snatched all their food.
As a result we became concerned about the safety of visitors. Hon Lao won’t be Monkey Island anymore if there are no monkeys; however, Khanh Hoa Tourism will be in danger of getting a bad reputation if anyone gets hurt.
Dang Thai Luyen, the manager of Long Phu Tourist Company which organizes the tours to Hon Lao, said that there are also rabbit and salamander in the island but the monkeys are the most popular attraction.
He pointed out that even though the troop is fairly docile they still have two dominant characteristics: they will scavenge for food arid have an innate self-defense reaction. Even though they are well fed it is their instinct to grab food, and will defend themselves if tourists get too close to them, or tease them.
The tour guides point this out to visitors and give clear instructions on how to behave around the monkeys, but unfortunately some people just focus on the troop and ignore the warnings.
It is also important to protect the monkeys from disease. There are about 18 tour guides, four body guards, one doctor and a physician to deal with any potential situation. To prevent the monkeys from illnesses, a water system has been installed to supply water added with some medicine.
The monkeys should not be fed when they are near the entertainment area. In fact, the designated area for feeding them is beautiful, with climbing vines for the monkeys to swing on.
Tourists come to Hon Lao to see the monkeys in their natural habitat and to have an opportunity to get close to them. But to ensure the safety of both monkeys and tourists it is important that the rules are obeyed.
(Source: SGT, URL: http://english.vietnamnet.vn/travel/2008/05/783059/)
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