The Ankorians wrote on banana leaves. As their society collapsed, and monks stopped meticulously copying manuscripts, the scrolls of leaves rotted away in the humid climate, and their history was nearly completely lost. We can glean some things from carvings and archeology, but still, tremendous mystery remains.

Anyways, our amateur guesses at the fall of the Khmer Empire quickly halt when Indi spots some monkeys at the edge of the jungle. From a distance we watch some of the young play, jumping around and running after one another. They throw dust in their mates face, pull their tails, hide behind momma monkey, and generally behave in normal sibling behaviour.

Then, completely unwittingly, Indi bikes till she stands right in front of the biggest, meanest looking one. She signals over at me and says, ‘Look at this one, he’s so fat!’ but suddenly and rapidly changes tune as the fat monkey stands up on his hinds legs, bears his fangs, and hisses. Instantly she starts screaming. The fat monkey is about sure he has found some easy prey, but I flank him from his right with my electric bike, and looking at me, he is not sure whether or not I am also prey.

I see the doubt on his face, the ripples on his small forehead. He eventually recognises me as his primary concern, and leaves Indi be for just a second. She uses this opportunity to bike away about a metre or two, where she stops to become easy prey once more. Perhaps she doesn’t want to abandon me to die alone.

Meanwhile I make myself as large as possible, trying to get into his fat monkey mentality. I start hissing at him, showing my teeth like the great ape I now readily admit I am. He charges at me a couple of times, but I charge just the same, making him unsure what to do next.

He retreats about a metre and a half away, hugging the nearest tree and unsure how to proceed. I absolutely floor it, pressing all the buttons of the electric bike as hard as I can. I’ve been shouting at Indi to go, but apparently she has the survival instinct of a freshly born baby and remains there to stand and look.

Now that I’ve started to bike away the fat monkey has grown furious that he had let himself be intimidated and chases after me. But as I speed up, he changes his focus again to the easy prey. Indi starts screaming and only then, finally, she acts, forcing the bike forward as fast as she can, only narrowly escaping death by fat monkey. A minute later, when the adrenaline starts to fade and our heartbeats slow down, she tells me, ‘that was fun!’

I don’t understand her sometimes