The Sacred Monkey Forest was not anything close to what I expected. I expected to arrive at an exhibit with an office and a guide ready to explain what we should and should not take in when coming to the Monkey Forest. I expected this guide to lead us into an enclosed area where we would be given bananas and then have a monkey placed on our shoulder.
However the Monkey Forest was actually like a forest, and not an exhibit at all. There was just a wide open arch that you walked through and you were no longer in the village and instantly in this magical Monkey Forest surrounded by monkeys. There were not any guides with food in hand that were ready to lead you through the forest, but only a couple of women trying to lure visitors to buy their bananas. (We were warned not to buy bananas by our helpful driver for the weekend, because he insisted that we only wanted the small monkeys rather than the large monkeys that dominated for the piece of fruit.)
There were what seemed like thousands and thousands of monkeys. I was barely able to sit down when the monkeys began climbing on me to take the food I was holding. I thank my dad for teaching me to just relax when it comes to handling animals; my friend admired that I was able to let the monkeys jump on me without panicking.
However the Monkey Forest was actually like a forest, and not an exhibit at all. There was just a wide open arch that you walked through and you were no longer in the village and instantly in this magical Monkey Forest surrounded by monkeys. There were not any guides with food in hand that were ready to lead you through the forest, but only a couple of women trying to lure visitors to buy their bananas. (We were warned not to buy bananas by our helpful driver for the weekend, because he insisted that we only wanted the small monkeys rather than the large monkeys that dominated for the piece of fruit.)
There were what seemed like thousands and thousands of monkeys. I was barely able to sit down when the monkeys began climbing on me to take the food I was holding. I thank my dad for teaching me to just relax when it comes to handling animals; my friend admired that I was able to let the monkeys jump on me without panicking.
Quick thanks to Eric, the best driver and guide in Bali, for taking some of my pictures! (Eric loved using my camera and taking pictures but he thought that the camera was supposed to flash every time you took a photo.)