Monkeys!!!

Oh my gosh, exploring the little city of Ubud was amazing today! It’s considered the “cultural heart” of Bali. There is the beach area to the far south, the mountainous area up north, and then Ubud in the middle. This seems much like a hippie nature loving village. Lots of shops with everything under the sun for sale and wonderful food. And … monkeys!!! They’re everywhere!!

As we approached the forest, we started seeing tons of monkeys crawling on the roofs, power lines, parked motorcycles. They were everywhere. Reminded us both of the scene in Jumanji where the monkeys are running around the city.

The really special thing about Monkey Forest is it’s not a zoo. It’s literally just a Forest - the monkeys are wild, no cages, no fences. Of course they are encouraged to be there, in that there is food put out for them multiple times a day. And there are handlers you can pay a small amount to and they will call the monkeys to you, hand feed them on your lap or on your shoulder. But again, it’s nice that it’s more on the monkeys terms. The Forest is rated very high by ethical standards, which made it even more special for us.

When we entered we were told a number of rules. 1) never pet them 2) never run from them 3) never scream 4) protect all your valuables - they are master thieves 5) DON’T Look them in the eye. Basically take a very submissive posture with them. We saw multiple times that they were definitely wild creatures, unpredictable and aggressive. They would jump on people, paw thru their bags. Didn’t happen to us but to lots of people around us. They did lunge at you VERY aggressively with bared teeth if you broke any of the above rules.

It was a great experience tho for us wandering this Forest for almost 3-4 hours! Couldn’t stop taking pictures of them because it was so entertaining.

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