Monkey Forest.Ubud

4.1. Ubud

Got up today and headed over to the monkey forest and temples. Ok..monkeys everywhere!!!! Big, small,babies,newborns, all in this forest with temples down every path. The monkeys were pretty tame and unaffected by humans, very curious. I sat down and one jumped on my lap and climbed up on my shoulder and then head, his little hands were soft and warm like a person, he grabbed my chin with his hands and just looked in my eyes, then hopped on my shoulder and started chewing on my ear and earrings, when I covered them he started grooming my hair, I am gonna be in alot of photos of Bali and the monkey forest as a big group of people had gathered!! He was a cool little monkey!! We walked around looking at the temples and amazed at all the monkey's everywhere going about their business, grooming and wrestling and fighting over food, it was pretty cool being in there forest and watching how the live and get on. The temple was spectacular!! again as I was trying to get photos of it a monkey jumped on..he started jumping up and down on my shoulders and head..Russ has some pretty funny video of this monkey having a great time on me!!! There were only 2 that frightened me...one that was holding my hand and then started showing his teeth..may have been smiling I don't know but it was freaky!! and then the big male...I had picked up a bunch of bananas off the ground and was walking down the path when this big guy comes running at me and tackles my hand and grabs the bunch from me...he takes them and I am left with 1 in my hand and walk on..only to hear someone yell lookout and he comes running up from behind and swipes the last one!! bugger!! This is why all the drivers said don't buy the monkey food!!!!

Left the monkeys and headed into Ubud for some walking around, shopping and lunch before our 2pm spa. Lots of family temples, galleries, art and markets, nice little village. Russ stops to buy a book and a local guy tells me of a cremation ceremony starting at 1pm up the road...kinda a rare thing for tourists to get to see and a big part of the Hindu Culture. We head up that way and there is a huge float all decorated and a life size white cow all decked out in flowers and gold, tons of people are gathering and it will be a huge procession. a lady keeps pestering me and telling me we need sarongs and that she will sell them to me...it is still 40 minutes away and I take some pictures..she says I really need a sarong and that is is very big deal...apparently the dead person is inside that big white decorated cow and the process thru town and light the cow on fire and burn the cow and the person...I will post a picture of the cow...but think I really don't want to watch a person burn!!! We leave to get some lunch and make some decisions on the cremation!!

Went to Nomad for lunch on the main street, had some fried leaves as an appetizer!, the seafood curry was really nice, and coke is less expensive than diet coke...just weird...back to the Ubud Palace to catch a shuttle back to the hotel...

Here's my description of my afternoon..."The epitome of Balinese massage: detoxifying & stimulating herbal skin preparations flush away all tension, followed by a cooling yogurt rub for Ph balance, with the final touches of a Bali flower bath and fresh pressed herbal tonic"...2 hours..traditional Mandi Lulur..ah it was all that...