LOPBURI Thailand (Reuters). Thousands of monkeys in Lopburi ate 2 tonnes of vegetables and fruits after their Monkey Festival was resumed in the middle Thailand following a hiatus of two years due to the pandemic.

Many macaques (also known as long-tailed mongoises) were seen climbing onto people, stacks of fruits, and munching on pineapples and bananas.

It costs more than 100,000 baht (about $3000) and is an annual tradition to show gratitude to the monkeys for helping to draw tourists to Lopburi.

   “Today’s special is durian, which is expensive. Yongyuth Kitwatanausont, who previously organized over 30 monkey festivals, said that Lopburi monkeys love expensive items.

The festival theme this year was the wheelchair monkeys. Yongyuth had planned to donate 100 wheelchairs for those who are in dire need.

Tourists have been gradually https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/month-after-reopening-thailand-sees-gradual-tourism-recovery-2021-11-25 returning to Thailand after the government launched a quarantine-free travel scheme for vaccinated tourists in November, and the festival proved a popular draw.

Thailand saw more than 100,000 inbound travellers https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/thailand-doubles-2021-visitor-numbers-after-easing-quarantine-rules-2021-11-26 in November, as high as the number of arrivals in the first ten months combined.

Ayoub Boukhari, a Moroccan tourist said that he was happy to have seen the festival and is now considering going to next year’s.

“It is very unexpected, and the monkeys seem quite stupid.”

Tourists were seen with cameras playing with the monkeys. Locals also enjoyed the resumption.

Thanida Phedjeeb stated, “It is the first time in 2 years that monkeys can eat all types of fruits and veggies.” They are my joy.

($1 = 33.7600 baht)