Bali - Ubud - Monkey Forest

On our first full day in Ubud, we wandered around a bit in town to do some shopping but quickly realized that it was way too hot for us. It was impossible to stop sweating so we quickly gave up and went back to the hotel and back into the pool. However we did manage to spend some time in the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary first.

The monkeys there are long-tailed macaques. Here are a couple of paragraphs I found giving the reasoning for the monkey forest's existence:

The presence of sacred forest is a demonstration of the harmonious coexistence of humans and nature. In Bali, sanctuaries such as the Monkey Forest are usually in sacred village areas, often surrounded by temples. These cultural sanctuaries are not only an important part of Balinese heritage, but also an important part of everyday life. Temple festivals are regularly held for the villagers and the gods in such areas.

A Balinese temple is more than just a collection of pagodas and pavilions. The area enclosed by temple walls and the forest area surrounding it is sacred. These temples and the forest are essential for renewing contact with the spiritual world. The activities associated with these areas are essential in maintaining harmony between humans, nature and the cosmos. Not only are ancestral spirits and gods given offerings and prayers, but also the spirits of trees and statues in the Monkey Forest are given offerings and prayers by the Pemangku and local villagers.


As soon as you start to get near the entrance of the forest, which is right in the heart of town and also nestled amongst some extremely busy roads, you start seeing monkeys hanging around. They were everywhere! And quite tame and friendly too. You could buy bananas at the entrance but that only guaranteed that the monkeys would jump on you and climb all over you to get at the bananas. I was too hot and not in the mood to get myself covered in monkey poo so I avoided the bananas and ensured that I did not have any food in my bag.

Here's one monkey hanging out on the sign at the front of the forest:



Mom and babies:



A little grooming:



Taking a breather:



Posing:



Having a snack:



When Martin sat down to take a breather at one point one of the monkeys came and sat on his lap for awhile. It was really cute, the monkey kept making Martin open his hands to prove he didn't have any food. However since Martin had the camera at the time I couldn't get a picture of the monkey on his lap.

And let's not forget that there is also a temple in the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary, so there are many detailed sculptures around as well:







And the temple itself:









We took a lot of pictures of the monkeys and sculptures and temple and they're all pretty neat so I'll post them in their entirety on Facebook and Kodak for people to look at. It was a really neat place to hang out in for an hour or two. Just watching all the stupid people buying bananas who thought the monkeys weren't going to climb all over them was pretty funny.