Monkey Forest

At markets in Bali they offer special morning prices or sunset prices and if you make the first purchase of the day they'll take your money and rub it all over what they're selling for good luck. Today we were all hurting from twisted knees and ankles and I had a black eye so the going was slower. We wandered down the main road through Ubud which is called Monkey Forest Road and it's full of cute restaurants and guys yelling out, "transport?" as well as ladies begging with their overly dirty looking children. If you walk down the end there's a forest full of Macaques. So we paid the entrance fee, bought some bananas to temp the monkeys and wandered in. There are Monkeys everywhere and lots of them have cute little babies that look like real babies. So many people have fed them bananas over the years that they turn up their noses up at bananas now(except the fatties). Apart from the monkeys, the forest is cool and lush with a river running through it that the monkeys drink from and swim in. Ben was in his element. There are 3 temples with scarey statues out the front and a monkey cemetery.

01 And This is How a Baby Monkey is Made

We spent some time at Corky & Michelle's villa and down at the lovely pool which is set overlooking a river. They bring you free water while you sunbathe. The hotel has its own little rice paddies so it's very pretty. Our guesthouse was really also nice, but on a much smaller scale and we got breakfast included in the price too.

02 Grooming

Ben and I decided to hire a bike so we could go further afield and check out some temples or whatever we came across. We went to Goa Gajan (Elephant Caves) which we both agreed was a total waste of time and money. Then we drove out to Gunung Kani which is where they have monuments to an old monarchy made out of stone. To get to them you have to walk down a lot of stairs, past some rice paddies and then sprinkle holy water on yourself. On the way home we got really lost, but ended up seeing gorgeous scenery and not really caring where we were. The roads were all really smooth too so that made it easy to ride around. That afternoon we did a rice paddy walk that's listed in our guide book which is a couple of hours walking through people's paddies and being offered fresh coconut milk. It was late in the arvo so loads of local people were bathing in the tiny rivers. It's a little disturbing to stumble upon a kiosk selling drinks and snacks in the middle of all this natural beauty though and we did several times. It just goes to show how tourism can negatively change a place (although I am sure the person running the kiosk thinks it's great). Ubud is an absolutely gorgeous place so forget about all that nasty stuff in Kuta and head an hour outside to enjoy the scenery and shopping.

03 Greedy

04 Cute

05 Naughty Monkey

06 Monkey Cemetery

07 Norks

08 Grotesque

09 Another Festival

10 Elephant Cave

11 Gunung Kani

12 Holy Water

13 Offerings

14 Stinky Ducks

15 More Offerings

15 Working Woman