Photo courtesy of Darcie Connell.
I gotta be honest.
Monkeys scare the hell out of me.
Why?
Well, they’re like a wild and unpredictable family member… you just never know what you’re going to get.
Photo courtesy of Darcie Connell.
So when I visited the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud – an inland village on the island of Bali, Indonesia – I was apprehensive to say the least…
As I entered the forest’s concrete path,I admired the impressive stonework on the countless moss-covered Balinese Hinduism statues. Their tongues dangled from their mouths and eyes bulged as if to warn me of danger. But I pursued forward.
Photo courtesy of Darcie Connell.
Then without warning I noticed several long-tailed macaques seated comfortably on the path as if waiting to greet me. I stopped and stared at their white whiskers, pointed ears, long tails, sharp canine teeth, and piercing eyes. Oddly enough they weren’t attacking me so I shuffled by them to continue on the trail.
Shortly thereafter, I found myself surrounded by monkeys. It felt like the entire monkey population (estimate 500 in 2009) was around me – in front, beside and even behind me.
And it’s no surprise.
Photo courtesy of Darcie Connell.
Accompanying the monkeys were hordes of tourists passing out bananas. I watched countless monkeys carefully guarding and eating their bananas, while others tugged eagerly on the pant legs of tourists asking for more.
While I didn’t feed the monkeys myself, it was fun to watch the other tourists get overwhelmed with monkey attention.
Photo courtesy of Darci Connell.
There were families of monkeys – or “troops” as they call them – everywhere. There were females, males, juveniles and infants who held tight to mom as males fought for bananas, juveniles played in the forest branches and others groomed and picked one another’s hair.
