The monkey picks 1,000 coconuts every day.

Bang San is a long-time resident of Ko Yao Noi island. At 72, when harvesting coconuts became too difficult, he trained his grumpy monkey, Ai Thong, to be a dedicated assistant, picking thousands of coconuts for him every day. Upon hearing Bang San's command, Ai Thong nimbly climbs the coconut trees to pick the ripest, tastiest coconuts. When he spots his "target," Ai Thong uses his foot to twist the stem until it breaks. A few seconds later, a coconut falls neatly to the ground.

If Mr. Bang San detects that there are no more coconuts on a tree, he will signal for the monkey Ai Thong to move to another tree, and so on. After the coconut harvesting is finished, Mr. Bang San will have the monkey sit at the base of the tree, then peel the coconuts and transport the good ones to candy factories or Thai-style sweets and coconut milk production facilities at Ko Yao Noi Nott market. For its part, after hours of hard work, the monkey Ai Thong is "compensated" with its favorite delicious sweets.

Currently, Mr. Bang San is one of the very few people who still raise monkeys to harvest coconuts. Before that, from the 1800s or even earlier, countries like Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia had already used monkeys to harvest coconuts.

In modern life, with the increasing demand for coconut products worldwide, the coconut farming industry has developed in a different direction, causing the practice of raising monkeys to harvest coconuts to gradually decline.

My Tong