The Monkey Forest
Ubud, 9th March 2002
Not a good night's sleep last night. I think there was a 2 hour gap
between the ending of the loud Karaoke and the start of the
cockerels crowing. Yes, there was a cockerel outside that started
crowing as soon as one ray of light falls from the sun and
constantly crowed at 10 second intervals for at least half the day.
I knew this paradise had to have some flaws.
Anyhow, once we'd forced ourselves out of bed, I was delighted to
find that they did a really nice free breakfast! I got a tomato and
omelette jaffal (toasted sandwich) and a big bowl of fresh fruit.
Stinge didn't agree though, he didn't like either of the things on
offer so he popped down to the shop to buy a snack.
Now that we'd got our bearings in Ubud, we decided to go for a walk
to explore further afield, starting at the well known Monkey Forest.
It costed a mere 3000Rp (20p) to get into the monkey forest. About
10m into the forest, we were confronted with a whole horde of
monkeys being watched by a group of tourists. There really is A LOT
of monkeys in this forest. Everywhere we went, we could see dozens
of them swinging from the trees, running along the paths and
generally frolicking. Stinge was a bit nervous, I think he had
mental pictures of wild monkeys scratching his face off. The place
looked like a real monkey haven, they looked happier than the
monkeys in any zoo.
We had a look around and soon came to a small temple. A guy offered
to show us around, this time I checked if he wanted money for it,
which he didn't. He showed us the grounds of the small temple that
is still used for burial ceremonies. It looked quite atmospheric as
the grey rock was covered in thick green moss. He didn't charge us,
but he did get us to look at his collection of paintings, just in
case we wanted to buy any. As we didn't, we quickly thanked him and
moved on.
Passing further into the forest, we finally came to the main temple
in the forest. Entry was free (we'd already paid for entry to the
forest) but you couldn't go in without a sarong and temple scarf,
which cost money to hire. Luckily, I'd already read about this, and
it works out cheaper, especially if you're planning to visit lots of
temples, to buy your own sarong and scarf. Stinge and I had bought a
sarong and scarf each, so we whipped them out of our bags and put
them on. We both chose different shades of blue for our sarongs, no
more pink skirts for us!
After a short walk around the temple, we headed out of the forest,
quickly putting our sarongs back into our bags.
Armed with a Lonely Planet map, we headed on a short walk through
the fields and villages around Ubud. The first village we entered
was into 'wood-carving', so there were dozens of shops selling every
conceivable carving. Continuing our walk through the village, we
really got to see a bit more 'authentic' Balinese life. Fewer
tourists pass through the places we visited, so it was very
refreshing compared to the heavily tourist trodden places of Ubud
town & Kuta.
We followed the country roads, winding through villages, rice-fields
and green land. Everyone we passed was very friendly and cheerful.
They all asked where we were going, what country we came from, if
this was our first time in Bali etc. etc. We cheerily answered them
in return and continued on our mini-trek through the Ubud province.
After a couple of hours, we'd winded back round to our hotel in
central Ubud at about midday. The walk was really worth it and we
got to see a great part of Bali.
At 1 o'clock, the usual heavy rains started, but this time we were
safe & dry inside the Internet cafe. Sitting inside the Net cafe can
really make you forget where you are, Net cafes are very similar
anywhere. However, when I went to use the toilet, I quickly
remembered where we were. I was faced with my very first,
traditional, Asian squat toilet. For anyone who's not familiar with
these, they're basically holes in the ground and you put one foot on
each side of the hole & squat! Lovely stuff!
The rest of the day went quietly. I spent most of the afternoon
planning how I'm going to spend my time in South-East Asia.
We had originally planned to go and see a traditional Balinese dance
at Ubud palace. But we discovered that they'd increased the ticket
price from 25,000Rp to 50,000Rp overnight, a 100% increase! That was
ridiculous, we weren't going to pay that much. There were a few
cheaper options around, but I think I'll wait until I reach mainland
Asia.
When it was time to go to bed, we noted how quiet it was outside,
then about 30 minutes later, the 'Live Reggae Night' started next
door. Great. We tried our best to ignore it, when we started to hear
some English girls' voices outside. They were yelping a bit seemed
to be carrying on about something, but we couldn't work out what.
Eventually, too nosy not to, Stinge decided to investigate.
He picked us his wallet & put his hat on, trying to make it look
like he was going to the shops, and off he went to check it out. I
could only hear part of what was going on, in fact, I could mainly
hear Stinge say suavely, "Hi there, what seems to be the problem?"
After a noisy 5 or 10 minutes, Stinge returned triumphantly,
apparently the girls had discovered a huge cockroach in their room.
2 of them were standing on chairs when he got there, and the other
was brandishing a shoe. Stinge then tried to catch it, but it was
too quick, eventually, the cockroach made the mistake of stopping
near Stinge.
Stinge, very proud of himself, recounted in full glorious detail how
he squashed & disposed of the big bug. I guess this is modern day
monster slaying! In ye olden times, knights used to rescue damsels
by slaying monsters, now guys slay big bugs instead! It's a good job
Stinge went to the rescue, I would have been no help in trying to
catch a cockroach, I would have been as bad as the girls!
After this brief excitement, we went back to bed and eventually, the
music ended, and the silence of night swept in.
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