Predictable: Woman With Fear of Primates Visits Monkey Island, Gets Attacked By Monkeys

If I had a life-long fear of monkeys, a place called Monkey Island is likely going to be pretty low of my list of possible tourist destinations.

Mrs. Darwell said she had had a fear of primates as a result of her father bringing up a chimpanzee which she described as 'positively evil'.

But she had joined with a friend a tour to Monkey Island run by the Siam Sea Canoe tourist agency to confront her fear.

After arriving on the beach, she decided to sit down and take in her surroundings.

'I thought I was heading for safety under this rock in the shade, only to cool down. I laid the towel down and there were no monkeys in sight,' said Mrs Darwell.

'The next thing I noticed, this monkey walked up next to me and I thought, "Oh dear". I began to stand up to move away.

'Then, the monkey took my wrist and pounced on my right arm, sinking his teeth in and hung off it.

'He wouldn't let go; he was locked on. I was absolutely petrified. I was shaking from head to foot and I froze,' she said.

'There was one man, a tourist, and when he saw the monkey bite me, he screamed and ran off.

'Then another, bigger monkey bit my arm, just next to the other one biting me, and all of a sudden I was surrounded by monkeys.'

She said three or four of the creatures began attacking her from all sides, grabbing her arms, legs and rear end, leaving bruises all over her body.

'I thought, "This is it, I'm going to die, I'm going to be savaged by these monkeys," then I went into shock,' she said.

Mrs Darwell does not remember how she was rescued, but was later told that the boat crew had shooed the monkeys away.

The next thing she remembers was the blood 'pumping out of a deep, deep hole' near her right wrist.

'It was like it was all going in slow motion and I was watching a movie,' she told the Phuket Gazette.

Mrs Darwell who was taken to the Bangkok Phuket Hospital added: 'I wouldn't have got off that bloody boat if the tour guide would have said at all that there was any danger, any risk, even the slightest risk. I would not have gotten off that boat.'

Tour leader Yongyut Buasod said, 'We can't control the monkeys if they decide to bite someone, that's why we always warn the tourists.

'That day some people were teasing the monkeys. They don't necessarily attack the specific person teasing them.