Riley Whitelum punches a monkey after a pack attack his toddler son at Kho Phi Phi, Thailand

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

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 they were relaxing on the beach, a monkey launched at their one-year-old — while the pack of monkeys then went through a bag of the family’s belongings.

Riley managed to scare them off by picking up his son and waving goodbye to them, but was left with bites and scrapes, while the family required vaccinations for tetanus and rabies.

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

After a failed sighting attempt, they decided to return at sunset when they finally saw the animals.

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

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

As Riley approached the bag to retrieve his things, a monkey lunged at him – and then at his one-year-old son.

The father was able to act quickly and picked up his son so he was out of the monkey’s grasp, before swinging at them and slapping a monkey to scare them off.

Elayna, who was snorkeling at the time, had no idea what had happened.

“I’ve had a fight with a dozen monkeys,” Riley said.

“That’s a monkey’s tooth,” he added, showing a cut on his hand.

“I feel sorry for hitting a monkey, but they went for Darwin, it was scary. None of the people on the beach helped.’

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

They explained that the doctors had told them that two people a day come in with monkey bites.

“I’ve never had a rabies shot before, so I need five or more in my wound. Then five more in the next 20 days,” Riley explains in the video.

The pair admitted they had done “no research” before going to the beach, and had they known it was famous for monkey attacks, they wouldn’t have gone.

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

They had no previous sailing experience.

Their journey so far has not always been without danger and has included a ‘nightmare’ encounter with pirates as they sailed close to the Galapagos Islands only to contract a deadly virus and be towed out to sea by another boat.

And then, of course, there are the heated arguments inherent in life at sea.

Elanya admits that living so close together isn’t easy and tensions can quickly build. She previously told Daily Mail Australia: ‘We’ve had arguments in the past and we really can’t look at each other. The boat is so small you literally can’t go anywhere!’

They used the money they made from their YouTube ads — which can be as high as $4,000 per clip — and some of it from the sale of their old boat they originally bought outright, to pay for the boat at a discount.

Their venture is backed by crowdfunding platform Patreon, with fans pledging between $1 and $100 per month if they like what they see.

Elayna claims their YouTube subscribers aren’t funding lavish lifestyles — bypassing destinations like Martinique, Saint Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, French Polynesia, Cape Verde, Europe and more.

The money pledged by fans will be funneled toward boat maintenance and new film equipment to continue producing high-quality footage while also giving them enough money to make ends meet.

They extract as much food as possible from the waters below them.

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

But when it comes to being the skipper of a tall ship, neither Riley nor Elayna had any experience prior to taking to the oceans, having to learn the ropes as they went along.

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