Monkey Business

We were five minutes into the walk along the wooden platforms in the Monkey Forest when I felt the weight of a medium-sized monkey land on my shoulder. Don’t panic, I reminded myself. Sandi said not to panic if this happened. But I really didn’t expect it to happen, and my heart was beating like a jackhammer.

It may have been a female because she was showing intense interest in my brightly-coloured bracelets. Of course, it could also have been male. These are, after all, monkeys. I don’t even like monkeys particularly, ever since that mugging-for-oranges incident in Rishikesh.

Monkey Forest is in Ubud, centre of spiritual tourism on Bali. Way too busy for my liking, but I did manage to get some laundry done and we had an amazing meal in an authentic Bali home the first night, so no complaints. 

The tour so far has exceeded all expectations, and we still have the beautiful island of Lombok ahead. Part of the group will be departing on Sunday and six new people will join us, so the energy will change. I will miss Chloe from London who is afraid of everything, Elizabeth from Mississippi who is always wandering off mysteriously on her own and returning with a satisfied smile on her face (she says it’s massages…), sweet Sam from Australia whose rafting guide fell in love with her and proposed marriage on the spot, Andy and Thomas from Germany who can usually be found in the pool with a beer.

A prolonged tropical downpour started not long after our arrival in Candidasa. This cancelled our rooftop yoga session with Sandi, so we all piled into the pool. Nothing like being in water in a heavy downpour, especially since we’ve been battling temperatures in the high 30s and 100% humidity

And the monkey? it finally gave up on getting the bracelets off of my arm and leaped into a tree, where it belongs. Much too close for comfort.