Indians
live in harmony with their animals, some of which are considered
sacred. Many Indians are vegetarian, though this may be as much
to do with the quality (and expense) of the meat as for ideological
reasons. The two most sacred animals are the cows and the monkeys.
Cows (like the one pictured right) wander serenely through the
chaotic streets of India, unperturbed by the maelstrom that takes
place around them. Be careful while driving though, if you were
to kill one in an accident there is a minimum penalty of five
years!
It
is sad but true for us beef eaters, but it seems that it is easier
to get away with running over a street urchin rather than one
of our bovine friends.
Just because someone I know didn't believe me when I told him about the cows, there is a picture on the left of some more cows wandering around Vashisht (a small village near Manali). Don't go too near their behinds as they are not house trained!
Other
things you might see are women herding sheep through the streets,
a sight you might see in any country. But, it all just adds to
the atmosphere of the place.
One thing you don't see very often is
snakes. Especially deadly poisonous Cobras. 
There was an Indian snake charmer who passed
by my hotel in Rishikesh and yes, the snake is real. Cobras are
actually deaf so they are not affected by the music at all. The
charmers have merely just found out what concoction of drugs
makes them tame.
Snake
charming is so easy, anybody can do it! I'm afraid I didn't manage
to get any kind of decent musical sound out of the pipe, perhaps
that was why the snake was in a bit of a strop (as Steve Irwin
would say). I can imagine it was thinking to itself... 'bloody
foreign tourists, think they can come to our country and just
start charming us, he's making an absolute bloody racket with
that pipe - I can't hear him but I can just tell he is' If you
open the picture and look carefully you'll see that it is actually
drooling venom!
Over my travels I've seen lots of animals,
a Duck Billed Platypus, Koala Bears, Bearded 
Dragons to name a few, but the star attraction
as far as I could see was the Rhesus Macaque Monkey in India.
These 'cheeky little monkeys' are exactly that, if they spot
food on you be ready for a fight! To the left are three that
came to see if they could rob bananas off me. Earlier (unfortunately
when I had no film in my camera) a mother came past with a baby
hanging off her stomach (not dissimilarly to the way marsupial
'Joeys' live in pouches). She let the baby go and it crawled
on top of a rock and looked so happy with itself. All the monkeys
were proudly watching their new family member whom they were
showing off to the humans. The little monkey jumped off the top
of the rock and landed in a heap with a big smile, it was like
watching the muppets but in real life.
I managed
to get quite close to one who let me take his photo on the Laxman
Jhula bridge (see right). The monkeys are very intelligent, they
even understand trade. The monkeys will steal cameras and clothing
from people and only return it when an acceptable edible payment
has been offered. Chapatis are apparently worth more than bananas
and if a monkey has your camera you will have to pay dearly!
The locals will all stand around laughing while this goes on.