Sacred Monkey Forest – Bali

Right in the heart of Ubud, Bali lies the Sacred Monkey Forest.  While not as massive as the name may suggest, the park/sanctuary hybrid is a pretty large enclosure where monkeys reign supreme.

This was on the top of my Must-See list for Ubud, after multiple people suggested it. We were warned that the monkeys would be aggressive in finding food, and luckily we went to the Forest twice, to perfect our technique!

There’s a nominal fee for entrance (I believe about 18,000 rupiah, or $2), and you can also purchase bananas for feeding the monkeys.  For those who wish to see the monkeys for free, you can hang out around the entrance – the monkeys don’t obey any boundaries, and are frequently seen walking across the street!

We made the mistake of not immediately separating our banana bunch, and lost almost all of them to one aggressive monkey only 10 feet in!

I was enthralled by the monkeys, and probably snapped about 200 photos. I had never been this close to monkeys, other than at the zoo.

These guys had no fear – they would sit right next to you, jump on you, or try to steal something from your pockets.

I couldn’t help but think of the monkeys from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book –I’ve always loved both the song from the book , and from the Disney movie!

Here we go in a flung festoon,

Half-way up to the jealous moon!

Don’t you envy our pranceful bands?

Don’t you wish you had extra hands?

Would n’t you like if your tails were — so —

Curved in the shape of a Cupid’s bow?

Now you’re angry, but — never mind,

Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

Here we sit in a branchy row,

Thinking of beautiful things we know;

Dreaming of deeds that we mean to do,

All complete, in a minute or two —

Something noble and grand and good,

Won by merely wishing we could.

         Now we’re going to — never mind,

         Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

All the talk we ever have heard

Uttered by bat or beast or bird —

Hide or fin or scale or feather —

Jabber it quickly and all together!

Excellent! Wonderful! Once again!

Now we are talking just like men.

Let ‘s pretend we are… never mind,

Brother, thy tail hangs down behind!

This is the way of the Monkey-kind.