Bali - Monkey Forest

There are a lot of monkeys on Bali! The most we saw were in the Monkey Forest in Ubud. The Monkey Forest is right in the middle of town, but once you go in it's as though you stepped into another world. There is jungle all around and the monkeys are everywhere!

The stonework is old and moss-covered - the whole thing looks like something out of an Indiana Jones movie.

We were lucky enough to visit during "baby-season" - there were lots of little ones running all over. The one below was hanging out with a monkey we assumed was its mama - but we were wrong! Just after we took this picture, baby tried to nurse on this monkey and got shooed away (pretty harshly, actually).

The monkeys were super comfortable with humans, which was a good thing since there were almost as many people around the monkey forest as monkeys. They could get pretty aggressive, however, trying to get food away from people. There were vendors in the forest selling fruit to feed the monkeys, and we saw more than one human get pounced on by one (or more!) monkeys trying to steal a banana. I like animals and all, but I'm not comfortable with them climbing all over me, so we opted out of buying snacks for the little buggers.

With all the feeding that goes on there, the monkey forest monkeys lead a very posh life. Their main activities seemed to be playing, eating and grooming.