Terrifying moment an Australian boy, 5, is viciously attacked by a gang of monkeys on a paradise island in Thailand – forcing his terrified dad to punch the feral animals in the face to save him

Shocking video shows the moment an Australian dad frantically tries to save his son from a gang of monkeys on a Thailand beach.

Influencer couple Riley Whitelum, 38, and Elayna Carausu, 29, were in Thailand with their sons Lenny, five, and Darwin, one, when they visited a beach notorious for monkey attacks in the Ko Phi Phi Islands.

While relaxing on the beach, one monkey launched at their one-year-old – with the pack of monkeys then rifling through a bag of the family’s belongings.

Riley managed to scare them off – picking up his son and taking a swing at them – but was left with bites and scratches, with the family requiring shots for tetanus and rabies.

The couple first arrived at the beach in the morning, and tried to attract some monkeys for their sons to see.

After a failed attempted sighting, they then decided to come back at sunset, when they eventually spotted the animals.

Riley was with his two sons when they first approached the group of monkeys.

The animals then headed towards the family’s bag, which contained money, passports, phones and wallets.

When Riley approached the bag to get his belongings back, one monkey lunged at him – and then his one-year-old son.

The dad was able to act quickly and picked up his son so he was out of the monkey’s grasp, before swinging for them and hitting one monkey to scare them off.

Elayna, who had been snorkelling at the time, had no idea what had unfolded.

‘I’ve been in a punch up with a dozen monkeys,’ Riley said.

‘That’s a monkey tooth,’ he added showing a cut in his hand.

‘I feel bad for punching a monkey, but they went for Darwin, it was scary. None of the people on the beach helped.’

The couple then went into the local town to get a rabies shot, with Riley passing out from the painful jab.

They explained the doctors told them they get two people a day coming in with monkey bites.

‘I’ve never had a rabies shot so I need five, or more, in my wound. Then another five over the next 20 days,’ Riley explained in the video.

The couple admitted they did ‘no research’ before heading to the beach, and if they had known it was famed for monkey attacks they wouldn’t have gone.

Riley and Elayna quit their jobs nine years ago – after knowing each other for just a few weeks – to travel the world by boat.

They had no prior sailing experience.

Their journey so far hasn’t always been without danger and has included a ‘nightmare’ encounter with pirates while sailing close to the Galapagos Islands to catching a deadly virus and being dragged out to sea by another boat.

And then, of course, there’s the heated arguments that are part and parcel of life at sea.

Elanya admits that living in such close quarters isn’t easy and tension can quickly build, previously telling Daily Mail Australia: ‘In the past, we’ve argued and we really can’t stand to look at each other. The boat is so small there’s literally nowhere to go!’

They used the money they earn from their YouTube advertising – which can be anything up to $4,000 per clip – and partly from the sale of their old boat which they originally purchased outright, to pay for the boat at a discounted rate.

Their enterprise is supported through crowdfunding platform Patreon, with fans pledging anywhere from $1 to $100 per month if they like what they see.
Elayna maintains their YouTube subscribers aren’t funding a lavish lifestyle – which has seen them circumnavigate destinations such as Martinique, St Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, French Polynesia, Cape Verde, Europe and more.

The money pledged by fans is funnelled into boat maintenance and new filming equipment to continue producing high quality footage while also giving them enough cash to get by.

They source as much food as they can from the waters beneath them.

Former scuba diving instructor Elayna, from Geraldton, Western Australia, grew up either in or on the water and even learned to sail during her school years.

But when it comes to being the skipper of a large vessel, neither Riley nor Elayna had any experience before they took to the oceans, having to learn the ropes as they went along.

The pair, who met on the Greek island Ios while Riley was sailing a yacht single-handedly and Elayna was playing music for a travel company, say they’ve since enjoyed a whirlwind ride.