Bali HIgh - I See You, Cheeky Monkey

Having been on a safari and seen animals outside of a zoo, I thought I'd be okay with getting up close and personal with the monkeys of the Monkey Forest, part nature preserve and part sacred shrine to monkeys, in the heart of Ubud. I can handle this, right?

Husband J in the Monkey Forest

One of our monkey friends. I think he's posing.

Well, I'll definitely say that it was an experience. For parts of my trip to Bali, I couldn't shake the distinct feeling that I was slowly but surely being eaten alive by bugs. Even when there was nothing on my skin I STILL felt like I was some lovely Balinese bugger's lunch. (I had a special relationship with some bug repellent with 35% DEET.) Actually that was the case during our very short jaunt in the Monkey Forest except in addition to bugs I had to also think about these cheeky little monkeys. But they're so cute, right? Hmm...

At least the babies are. :)

Families are cute too!

While they are cute, knowing that these very quick and known to be occasionally unfriendly animals were essentially right next to me didn't always sit well. We'd heard stories of the monkeys grabbing food (hey, they get hungry too!), sunglasses, and other objects not stapled to your body. Umm...fun.

I mean there are just so many of them. You feel kinda surrounded.

Some of them were up to a little monkey business..okay, I had to. :) But seriously I noticed several monkey couples searching each other's fur. I think that maybe they were searching each other's fur for ticks or maybe cleaning each other? What do you think?

There were other things in the Monkey Forest besides...monkeys.

Cool statue..with a monkey

A closed off temple area

So Husband J and I are close to the exit, and we're thinking that it wasn't so bad. We've made it through the Monkey Forest. The next thing I know I feel something on me. It's a monkey! I'm thrashing about, and the little cheeky monkey finally jumps off of me. The whole episode took about 5 seconds, but it felt like a whole lot more. They're super quick. Don't believe me? See below.

This wasn't the monkey who jumped on me, but it was probably his cousin.

Thanks to the Monkey Forest, I've definitely had my fill of monkeys for awhile. :)