We’ve been so excited to go to Monkey Forest

20.2.16

Today we got the 10 am transfer to town after pineapple caramel pancakes, shared with the dog.
We walked to the end of the long Monkey Forest road which has lots of lovely shops along the way. Admission was 40000 each. (£2 each).
We expected to have to look hard to see them but there were literally hundreds!

There was a list of advice, don’t make eye contact, don’t take any hidden food in, don’t run, don’t scream, stay still if they jump on you etc.
I was slightly scared!
There were many staff working there who clearly have a great relationship with them and they help to keep everyone safe, it was very reassuring.
Took so many photos, the vegetation is really lovely and there’s 3 temples within, one is a holy water temple, but much smaller than the one we saw yesterday.

The stone carvings are amazing too.

Saw monkeys getting up to all sorts of antics, stealing peoples water bottles, playing, grooming, and we were really  surprised how much they enjoyed jumping from the trees into a small water pool. Whilst videoing them playing in the water one jumped on my back, John said my face was a picture and I just sort of turned to stone.
Shortly afterwards one jumped onto Johns back, it was soaking wet and then it was trying to nibble the back of his neck!
Unfortunately I missed the moment it jumped on him and was so shocked that I turned the video off!

Today is a special celebratory day in the Hindu calendar, they have them twice a year.
Many men were wearing mainly white turban style hats and the women seemed to be a lot more dressy than usual, a lot of lacy tops and long skirts.

After the forest we decided to go to the Suckling Pig restaurant. Unfortunately because of it being a special day the restaurant was closed. That’s twice we’ve tried to go!
We continued walking in that area, really lovely and traditional.

Ther were lots of decorations everywhere, even on all the cars and scooters. There were several little restaurants but unfortunately all shut.

It started to spit with rain,then began to rain very hard. We spoke to 2 young women who were also on a food hunt so we all ended up going to Warung  Ijo where we went for our massive lunch. They made the same mistake we made first time and over ordered but luckily they loved it.
We were far more restrained this time !

The rain eased off, then started again, so we stopped for coffee across the road.

Just like in Turkey umbrella sellers appeared out of nowhere, they also had big plastic ponchos, but as it was warm rain and we didn’t have far to go we braved it.
We walked to get the 4.15 pm Villa Mandi transfer which never turned up, even though he said he would come down anyway as we weren’t sure what time we would want to come back. So we got a ‘taxi’ back.
We were a little disappointed that we didn’t get an apology, just a shrug and a ‘we didn’t know you wanted transfer’.

I caught up with messages and emails and had a couple of drinks on the terrace.

When we were hungry later we wandered to the next building along but they only served drinks, so ate at our accommodation again.

They asked if we would mind being videoed for a promo video, by a female student as part of her course. He said it would be him giving out the menus, taking the orders, bringing the food.
We politely agreed, no need for a crew as all done with a mobile phone !
All was well, he brought our drinks, but we didn’t expect her to be filming us the whole time we were waiting for the food! When it arrived she thankfully stopped filming.

When he brought our bill we had to re act that part, as she wasn’t quite ready.

We’ve asked about booking a driver to take us to the big night market tomorrow night. If they forget to sort it we will ask one of the many drivers in town.
Apparently they have suckling pig at the night market too, we’re determined we’re going to try it!

We’ve booked our complimentary massage for 2pm tomorrow, the plan is pool time, may even finish my book… and Johns going for a run.

Time for a bit of tv now before crashing out.
Love the bed here, super comfy even if Johns had to wedge a towel behind it to stop it waking us up every time we move.

Did I mention how much I’m loving Bali?