Getting over my fear of monkeys

christinelouise Asia, Travel Talk 2015, Asia, bali, indonesia, monkeys, ubud

Ubud, Bali, Indonesia: things are getting scary

We are dropped off at the bus stop in Ubud and start walking towards our hostel, In Da Lodge. Turns out it’s like 2 kms away, mostly up a steep hill. When we finally find it, we drop our stuff and immediately head to the Monkey Forest. Back in India, I was kinda attacked by a monkey, and ever since then, I have had a fear of the little bastards.

Right as we step into the monkey forest with our bananas, the bigger monkeys start chasing us. I am panicking and basically giving all my food away immediately, walking around with my hands up to show the monkeys that I don’t have any food left. As if that would help. A few monkeys in the trees drop down to land on Pete’s backpack and try to claw their way into it – they can probably smell the peanuts he has in there. We quietly walk around, watch monkeys have sex, and lure the smaller monkeys in with our shiny bracelets. One of the monkeys is really into Pete’s arm jewelry, and tries to eat it.

Getting motorboated by a monkey. Check.

The next day, we go on a tandem quad safari out in the rice fields. Pete’s driving and he’s not holding back, of course. Much of the trip, we’re rolling down muddy hills and getting stuck, and every time I am pushed back into the metal frame on the back of the quad, leaving me with a massive black bruise on my butt cheek. Afterwards, we go to a waterfall, which Pete drags me under just so I can say I swam under one. I am forever grateful.

On a whim, we decide to get on the ferry to Gili Trawangan the next day, so goodbye to boring Ubud. While Pete is running around, trying to find an ATM in the rain, I am drinking some Aga white wine. Because who needs that kind of stress?