For some reason, I have been to a lot of places that have monkeys, hmmmm, just saying. In a previous post I talked about the monkey temple in Jaipur, India and be sure to look for future posts with other monkey adventures! ha!

One of those experiences was at the Monkey Forest in Ubud, Bali, a must see if are in Ubud. The Forest is home to 600 macaque monkeys, as well as three temples that date from the 14th century. The Forest is a sacred place for the local village and the site of many Temple festivals.

Be sure to pay attention to the guidelines for visiting the Forest displayed at the entrance. Take care if you decide to feed the monkeys, especially if you have children who want to feed them. There are staff available to help you approach and feed them. They have people selling food you can feed the monkeys and they ask that you do not feed them human snack food. If you have any food on you that you do not want to feed them, keep it hidden so they cannot get to it. Monkeys can have rabies so do not pull food away from them and use common sense around them. While we were there, a visitor from Australia had gotten scratched by a monkey and had blood running down his arm, yikes! I personally am not into having them climb on me, but some people love that.

img_1482small — Staff member who can help you feed the monkeys

What to do in the Forest

HANG OUT WITH THE MONKEYS, OF COURSE – there is plenty to see and photograph by just walking around and checking out the packs of monkeys do what monkeys do, eat, groom, play, occasionally fight and tree sit…..

img_1467small — Digging into a human snack he should not have

img_1468small — Who gave this guy a bag of cheetos?

TAKE IN THE GREEN SPACE – while the monkeys are the stars of the show in the Forest, the green space they live is also incredible. There are over 100 species of trees in the Forest. One of them had leaves almost as large as Sam! Some of the trees are considered sacred and are used in Balinese spiritual activities. The wood from one of them is used to make masks that are only used in the Temple.

APPRECIATE THE ARCHITECTURE – the three temples and interesting, statues and fountains offer a wonderful opportunity see Balinese stone carving. Bali is world renowned for its wood and stone carving. One of it’s major exports are carved decor items, furniture, doors, wood masks and garden statuary.