Mobile recovery fail! Monky 1 Olya 0

The biggest problem with finding my cell phone is the fact that the monkey bay has no cell signal. The other problem was that I didn’t know my phone number, so even if there was reception, Ni couldn’t call it. During dinner back in Salang, I realized that the phone has an alarm set for 7:55am. I returned to the pier asking for a boat back the following morning. I was told that it’s possible, but it’s going to cost RM80. Sadly, that was a bit too expensive, so I returned to my hotel where I complained to the owner about the monkey. Her husband had a small boat that he’d use to go out to fish daily. I asked him to come on the phone search mission with me and he agreed to do it for RM20. We decided to meet at 7:25am, perfect! The next morning, I step outside and I’m horrified to see how low the tide is. It’s not just low, it’s so far out, I was worried a Tsunami might be coming. Ella, the hotel owner assured me that everything was fine, but there was no way we can get the boat in the water at that point. With the time ticking, I rushed over to the green boat at the pier that Ella recommended. All on one breath, I explained to man that may not have even spoken English that a monkey stole my phone and the alarm is to go off in a few minutes and that he must come to the jungle with me to search for the phone. Luckily, the man spoke enough English to understand and asked for RM40. Not that I had time to bargain, but I brought the price down to RM35 and off we went. In about 5 minutes, we arrived in his speed boat to the monkey bay. The tide was low there too, of course. The closest he could bring his boat to shore was half a kilometer. While he was dealing with the anchor, I jumped out and ran towards the shore. Yeah, running in water, not easy! It was already 8 minutes into the alarm and I was pretty sure it’ll keep ringing for 7 more. I ran into the jungle only to be surprised by the huge amount of noise from all the insects and animals. The cacophony of sound was so overwhelming that I had to pause to remember why I was there. Oh, right, phone. Even if the phone was somewhere close by, distinguishing the sound of the alarm from the repetitive insect choir. I searched around for a bit in the different parts of jungle along the beach, nothing. I came out to the shore to see the boat driver coming onto shore. He said “what’s the phone number, I’ll call it.” Oops, I didn’t bring my phone number with me. Despite his phone not working on the beach, he was convinced that my phone would ring if he called it. We returned back to my hotel where I got the number and back to the beach we went. Terry, the boat driver stood ankle deep in water calling my phone over and over while I searched around in the jungle. After 10 minutes, I gave up, but Terry was determined. He gave me his phone and said dial and disappeared in the jungle. I stood in the water dialing for so long that by the time Terry returned, I was knee deep in water. Had I moved closer to the beach, the phone would stop working. Dialing my phone one last time, I heard a bunch of monkey noises down the beach. I could make out a few monkies quite far down the beach.. I thought “Hmmm… maybe my phone is ringing and they’re arguing who’s going to answer it.” I handed Terry his phone, grabbed a stick and ran towards the monkies screaming “which one of you bastards has my phone.” No, really, I did. They scattered and hid in the trees, no phone in sight. I turned around and headed back to the boat. The tide was high now and now I was walking thigh high in water, no fun! Terry made some jokes saying that the phone keeps ringing in the hands of the thief monkey and it’s probably dancing with its monkey friends to the tune. Grrr…. Stupid monkey. I can’t believe I underestimated monkey intelligence. I was thinking it’s equivalent to a 2 year old, but as it turned out, it’s more like a 10 year old. So, the monkey has my phone and it has RM2.5 to call its monkey friends. This is how I should have protected my bag :(