Yesterday, I took a short walk from the hostel (about 20 min) to the Ubud Sacred Monkey Sanctuary, otherwise known as the monkey forest. One Hindu belief is that humans must live in harmony with their natural environment, and the monkey forest actually is on the grounds of Hindu temples.
There we're hundreds of monkeys sitting, crawling up walls, walking up the path, lying down, relaxing with their kids-and they we're all out in the open. They came right up to people, and walked right in the way. You could buy bananas and feed the monkeys. Some people played with the monkeys. I wasn't willing to do that, as I have heard too many stories of people getting bit.
I spent about 3 hours walking the various paths and watching the hundreds of monkeys wandering around. I took pictures with monkeys. Monkeys tried to get what was in my pocket. I tried not to look at the monkeys in the eye, as signs said that looking a monkey in the eye was a sign of aggression, and the monkeys could attack. I did see a worker at the zoo playing with the monkey, including touching his balls.
After a few hours, I walked out of some far exit, and found I was lost. I was far from the city center on an isolated road. I saw a busy road in the distance, and walked to it. It was a narrow walk, and I walked along in the heat. Two woman I rode the boat with from Gilli Air we're driving by (in a hired car) and recognized my loud Hawaiian shirt-so they offered me a ride further into town. I had lunch and walked back to the hostel, and later had dinner with some folks from the hostel.
