by PSchulman
The rules states on page 12, under movement:"The first movement a players does is on one of the 7 tiles at the bottom by the marked edge of the board. The first step counted is on the first Zone tile the player chooses to move upon."
By my reading I can only assume the tile you place your monkle doesn't count as a step (a movement can go up to 3 steps, depending on the card played).
Hope that helps.