Monkey See Monkey Do

Yay - I finally got to see some monkeys!!! We went touring again today with Made. He first took us to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary where we walked around for about an hour in a beautiful lush forest/jungle (we keep having a debate about what the difference is??) where there were hundreds (approx. 400 in fact) little monkeys just walking around on the paths and hanging out in the trees. We were instructed to not touch the monkeys; however, shortly into our walk, one friendly monkey decided that he liked Kevin and tried to dig in his pockets and then jumped up on him and walked all around his shoulders and hung from his arm while we laughed hysterically, trying to get the monkey off him. He kept stalking Kevin for a while, following us down the path and trying to get into his shorts pockets and attempting to jump up again. We walked around, took lots of pictures, and hung out at the little pond in the middle of the park for awhile, as there were a few monkeys playing in the water and swinging/jumping from the two little trees in the pond. Lots of people gathered around, and a few times, different monkeys climbed up on people. One guy sat down on the steps to get a picture with the monkeys sitting there, and one jumped up on his head and tried to take his hat. I had a few run-ins with them too. One sitting on the wall along the path grabbed onto my purse when I walked by, climbed up and swung from it and my arm for a bit; and at one point, a tiny baby monkey on the path came over and played with my pink painted toes. I made sure to stand really still, not to alarm the baby and have mama come after me. There little hands are sooooo soft. This was a definite highlight of the week so far!!

When we were done playing with the monkeys, we drove through Ubud - quite a tourist village with lots of shops, and headed up to the volcano for lunch. Stopped at a restaurant up high on the hill overlooking the mountain and lake Batur out in the distance. Spectacular view - the volcano mountain, huge lava field, and the lake off to the side. Food was not great - a buffet of Indonesian, but we have definitely had better. Then back to Ubud for some shopping...however by the time we got back, it had started raining...no, torrential downpouring. Made forgot to bring umbrellas, so we ran around in the rain a bit, but quickly decided, after getting soaked in about 2 mins, that we would come back another day. We stopped briefly at Mas, a little town known for its wood carvings, where we went to a little place to look around. Wow - the detail in the carvings is crazy!!

We got back to TJ at about 3:30 pm, and hung out in our little hut and on the couches by the pool for the rest of the afternoon reading, while it continued to rain on and off. Walked down the beach a bit to find a place for dinner. I had hawaiian pizza - needed a break from the spicy food! Then back to our room, where we had a little gecko lizard running around in our tub. Kevin tried to catch it, but man they are fast. I think it finally got out somehow by crawling through the hole where the tap comes in. As long as its not in the bed...