Monkey Forest, Ubud

We discovered Dan had some sort of throat infection, so our first stop in the morning was a pharmacy to get antibiotics. Antibiotics can be purchased over the counter here so that was quite handy! We then rode over to Monkey Forest that had over 1000 monkeys split into 7 different groups that were free to roam around the park, although unlike some we’ve encountered before, these appeared to be quite friendly or at least familiar with people. Some were resting, eating, sleeping, playing and even mating on occasion. One in particular caught Dan's attention as the monkey was on its own sitting on the ground playing with a stone, banging and scraping it along the stone floor. We must have sat and watched this monkey for 20 minutes as he flicked the stone from one hand or foot to the other whilst wrapping and unwrapping it in leaves. After walking around for another hour, the same monkey walked past, again playing with the same stone in his hand. Most monkeys ignore people but one in particular had his eye on Dan's rucksack so jumped up, had a look and tried to open the zip. He was frustrated as Dan kept it closed so decided to sit on his shoulder to groom Dans hair before quickly jumping off to play. Like Jess' love for elephants, Dan has a real fascination about monkeys so he didn’t mind this at all, although Jess was a little anxious watching this event unfold. Later on we both had monkeys climb on us and yet again the monkeys took a liking to Dan climbing all over his head and shoulders. The baby monkey also seemed quite curious about Jess' hair and bracelet!

We left for Ubud again and enjoyed lunch at a nice little cafe before riding out to Suwat Waterfall 30 minutes away. Minutes after leaving, Dan spotted a Triumph dealer so of course had to pop in and have a look. The guy inside spoke little English but was so excited when Dan told him he worked for Triumph back home that his face immediately lit up. We struggled to have a conversation but we think he got the idea. It was even better seeing one of the first products Dan ever designed 4 years ago hanging up on the display wall - a side stand foot accessory. On display was the 2.5L Triumph Rocket so we asked how much it cost and to Dans surprise it cost 1 billion (rupiah) which is about £60,000! The dealer was just as amazed when he saw a picture of Jess test riding a Speed Triple 1200 on a rolling road back in Hinckley.Read more