Location: Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

I woke up pretty early this morning to take advantage of the free yoga class and cool weather. A few birds were chirping as we laid yoga mats down on the grass for an hour long hatha flow session by the pool (it got cut a few minutes short when it started to rain). It was a lovely and relaxing way to start the day, and I had a few hours to myself afterwards to read and sip coffee in my warm yoga pants.

Eventually I went and woke Max up so he wouldn’t miss free breakfast- and good thing I did cause he was out cold and probably could have slept a few more hours! He did perk up when he remembered what our first stop today was going to be!

The Sacred Monkey Forest! Luckily it’s only a ten minute walk from where we are because Max was so excited to get in there he wouldn’t even stop to look at the entrance map (I’m religious about looking at maps of where we’re going). We walked down into a dark tunnel carved out of a huge rock, and out onto a platform. Immediately a moustachioed monkey darted in front of us across the cave opening, and we saw more perched on the fence in front of us. Hollyyyyyy they’re right there. We walked along a stone path through dense jungle terrain seeing monkeys in the trees and sitting happily, unbothered by all the visitors on the pathway. We reached a temple where dozens of monkeys, from little babies to old chubby guys, were running around every which way. Some were eating, some were playing in water, some were fighting, some were just sitting quietly.

Just a quick note, you’re not allowed to reach out to monkeys, but they are allowed to reach out to you. Also also also… you can’t look them in the eyes. It’s interpreted as a sign of aggression so every time we accidentally made eye contact one of us would squeak a bit and turn away quickly… it’s harder than it looks not to!

On a covered Dias Max went to stand in front of a few juveniles so I could get a picture, and one leaped off the pillar behind him and onto the bag slung across Max’s shoulder! It climbed up and around him, biting at the pattern on his shirt and pulling at his bag, wristband and hair. Max was laughing but was in immediate silent shock afterwards. He definitely said something along the lines of ‘there were just monkeys biting me’. Later on one figured out how to open the zipper on Max’s bag, stuck his hand inside, and hissed aggressively when Max tried to get the situation under control! Eventually we shook that one, only to have another we named Fluffy/Herbert, sit on Max’s shoulder contentedly for five straight minutes as we walked around. Pet monkey anyone?

I crouched to get a picture of one, and it ran up to play with the wristband I had on from the hostel, and ended up crawling all over me! HOW IS THIS HAPPENING. I had two sitting on me at one point, one directly on my head. Can you tell ‘excited panic’ is what I was feeling?!

We left the sanctuary after exploring every nook we could, and booked it home to shower and change clothes. We were covered in little dirty handprints, and both pretty shocked. Definitely one of the funnest places we’ve been, even if we looked totally disheveled and dirty on the way home.

Once we had freshened up we made our way over to Goa Gajah, a temple a couple kilometres away famed for a cave where you enter through the mouth of a beast. Walking inside was totally throwing, because we both realized we weren’t looking at something from ages past – this is still used! The whole set up felt like it was a museum display from a medieval era. Goa Gajah felt like a really good example of the kind of temples we’re finding here that I’ve been having trouble describing. The blockiness!

We returned home to lay by the pool and participate in the hostels all you can eat BBQ, with live music covering a whole lot of Bob Marley. Later on there was traditional Indonesian dancing, with wide eyed, wrist flicking, butt swaying glamour. The movements were almost robotic, with sudden starts and stops. They had to arch their backs so hard the entire time I don’t know how they aren’t super sore after that! The two women were dressed up completely head to toe, wearing pink dresses and fluffy yellow antennae that shook as they flicked their heads around. I’ve never seen dancing like it before, and Max and I both sat with our forks halfway to our mouths basically the entire time!

Hoping for more sun tomorrow!

Sav