Monkey See, Monkey Do!
I was going to call this post "Monkey Balls" - as going through my pictures, there seemed to be rather a lot of photos of monkeys displaying their wares (as Monkeys are wont to do around good-looking females... ahem!). I have spared you most of them with some cropping or more judicial selections. However, photographing these little critters is difficult, as they are always on the move. In the time I spent in the Monkey Forest here in Ubud I saw them fighting, playing chasey, cuddling, flea picking, stealing fruit from each other, going through someone's backpack (what were they thinking leaving it on the seat unguarded?) and even mating (right in front of a woman who was quite incensed by the brief and rather violent display)!
The forest sanctuary isn't very large, I took my time and saw everthing in 90 minutes, but the temples and forest itself are by far the more spectacular parts of it. There are the most elegant tall trees all draped in vines, a deep ravine with a river at the bottom, half-hidden statues covered in moss that make you look over your shoulder for Indiana Jones, and the most intricately carved temple stone walls telling tales of long-forgotten monkey wars. Yet, so few people were looking at the carvings, or amazing valley, let alone the dragon bridge, lookout iguana carving, and holy well (see my pictures of all these things in the blog gallery) - no, clearly the attraction is the monkeys!
I don't think there are all that many monkeys, and given that most tourists are more interested in these little critters, it's not surprising that they are well looked after. There are many attendants in the park in traditional sarong and head scarf and they have cages where they keep their stores of food for the monkeys. Tourists can buy bananas to take in, but unless you know how to calmly give it to them, then all you do is provide entertainment for other tourists as they watch you in a panic throwing bananas at the throng of approaching monkeys hoping it will be deterrent enough to stop them climbing over you (it isn't if they think you still have bananas!).
Near the temple, there was one guard who had a couple of monkeys clearly trained to respond to the poses he would put the tourists in. He would seat the tourist on the step, and give them a small piece of fruit on an upstretched arm (like the statue of liberty) and the monkey would dextrously climb up the person's back and arm and then sit on their shoulder to eat it. I saw him do this with several people (always telling them not to touch the monkey, who would rest his non-eating hand nonchalantly on the person's head, making everyone laugh), and each human statue commented on how bad the monkey smelled!
I had no intention of getting close to them - for starters I've never seen so much flea scratching! Perhaps they weren't spending enough time picking them off each other - I only saw one couple of monkeys doing this. However, I was surprised while setting up a photo shot at the holy well when a little fellow jumped around me to land on the pillar I was leaning on (that's him above!). It had one of the little Hindi offering baskets (they usually have a little biscuit in them) which he deftly went through and ate. I have before and - well, during - shots in the Blog Gallery for Bali (hit the more link and more photos will load). The little show-off then jumped onto a vine dangling precipitously over the pool 20 metres below and swung out and back again. I think he even half-expected some applause for his Tarzan impersonation!
Of course they move so fast that many of my shots are a bit blurry - but I liked this one the most (except for the couple photobombing my monkey!). Can't have it all, hey? I did manage miraculously to get a photo of the dragon bridge while empty! That took a fair bit of waiting and shushing of people. I really did intend to get to the park by 9.30am, but my driver didn't show up, and by the time the replacement arrived, I didn't get to the park until 10.30 when the crowds were starting to swell. I believe it is much worse in the afternoon when the day trippers arrive from other parts of Bali.
So after all the walking around in the humidity yesterday, today I am relaxing by the pool (or as my hosts say - I have no program for today!). One of those days where you don't even bother to change out of your bathers. With my straw stetson and my black and orange flower sarong over my bathers, I am sure I look the Villa part. The two hour massage helped in terms of relaxation too!
I still have "on my program", however, a trip out to the Elephant cave and temple, and a tour of the Ubud food market and accompanying cooking class (wickedly picked because I will learn how to make sago pudding - my favourite!). But as I am making my decisions day by day, we will see. Until then - stay chilled - Aveline. xxx
