The beach and how I almost got attacked by a monkey!

This past Saturday Thai Christian picked us up early in the morning and we were on our way to Pattaya, which is about 50-60 miles south of Bangkok. When we arrived at Pattaya, we loaded onto a speed boat, where our guides took us to a beach on one of the islands in the area. Upon arriving at the beach, I saw the most horrible sights, that I would hope no one sees in their lifetime. Almost every person was wearing a Speedo, I immediately felt sick and wondered what I had done wrong because this was obviously a punishment. I nearly lost my lunch, and I had not even eaten lunch yet! After I got over the shock and the partial blindness, we went for a swim in the water, which was blue and clear,except for the occasional piece of garbage. It was during this time that I swam too far out in the water and nearly drown (this is no joke!). My arms became very tired and it felt as if I had just run a few miles. I turned backed and started to think that I may not make it because my arms were starting to burn a little and I had swallowed quite a bit of the water. Well, obviously I made it back with a little help from Jon and Kristi and decided to stay out of the water for the rest of the day. After lunch, I decided to mingle with the local folk and see what the vendors had to offer. After about an hour or so of walking up the beach, it was time to head back to the boat. On my way back, I noticed a man throwing some food up on the roof of one of the shops. When I looked up I noticed that he was feeding two monkeys. Since I have no pictures up yet, I will paint a visual of the next scenario. I am 6'3" and the roof is about 7 and a 1/2 feet tall so my head is pretty close to the monkeys. I break out the camera and snap a few pics and then I take one step forward to get a better shot-that was a mistake. The bigger monkey, takes offense to this and responds by walking to the edge of the roof, raising it's hindquarters in the air and leaning slightly over the edge of the roof. Then the monkey showed its teeth, which were big and very sharp looking. After the showing of the teeth, the monkey then made a hissing sound and I thought it was going to leap on my head. However,the man feeding the monkey pulled me back saving me from embarrassing the monkey in a battle of fists and wits. Sure the monkey would have gotten a bite or two in and probably given a disease, but I could have taken it in a fight. After nearly getting in a fight with the monkey-okay, so after nearly getting attacked by this monkey, I made my way back to the boat and we were off.