Monkeys, Monkeys Everywhere

Hello, hope all is well. Sorry, again, for the delayed writing. I've been on vacation and blissfully reading books and walking in mountains and ignoring modern things such as computers. Well, this is not really true. Since leaving for vacation, I have had my first hot shower since arriving in India and watched my first bit of T.V. (both amenities provided by the hotels I've stayed at). And I have come to the conclusion that I really like hot showers. A lot.

I first went up into the Himalayas and visited a hill station called Mussoorie. There, I stayed in a hotel that was once a home to a British colonial official. Because it is currently the off season (i.e. it rains very hard all the time), the hotel was quite affordable and very beautiful. One wall was made of windows that looked down into a valley. The windows were great, except they allowed a perfect entrance for the monkeys that decided that they liked to break into my hotel room. It seems like the monkeys would begin their day by running and playing on the tin roof of my hotel room. The men at the hotel would shoot at the monkeys and the monkeys would hide until I left for a walk or cup of coffee and then they would open closed windows and eat any food they found in my room. Thankfully, the hotel management were good enough to chase the monkeys out for me, as I am a little intimidated by them.

After spending some peaceful and fun-filled monkey days in Mussoorie, I headed to Rishikesh, which is Mecca to the hippies in the world, the place where the Beatles hung out with their guru, and near the beginning of the Ganga. My main reason for going was that I hoped there would be tofu there - and I was not disappointed. The River was beautiful and split the city in half. In order to get from one side of the river to the other, one needed to cross a footbridge. The bridge was fun, crowded, and afforded good views of the mountains and the fast moving river. It was also always full of monkeys. Before I had traveled to Rishikesh, a friend of mine told me that she had been mugged by the monkeys (they stole her grilled corn - a delicious food cooked on a fire and flavored with lime and spices, it is sold on every street in northern India right now and I think I am addicted). Thanks to her warning, I kept my food safely hidden when crossing the river and managed to avoid further monkey contact.

Now I am in Delhi, where they have supposedly have monkey problems
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4623890.stm
but I have only seen a few monkeys, always near the train station. I wonder if they ride the trains?