My final installment:
JBR no. 3: I am staying in Ubud & had an interesting encounter with an elephant at the Elephant Safari Park. A day or two later....
I walked into the Ubud Sacred Monkey Forest, which is a short downhill walk from my hotel, The Tegal Sari. My first experience with this forest was 20 years ago, & I visit it whenever I am in Ubud. I love to watch the monkey's antics. The Balinese have done a good job of landscaping the forest with retaining walls & footpaths over the years.
There were lots of monkeys being fed sweet potato in one area. A guide was feeding some others rambutans in the main clearing. There were quite a few young ones playing about, chasing each other. One was having a good time splashing in the small pond in the centre of the clearing. One of the grown monkeys had a 2 week old baby - cute as, he looked like a little old man with huge wise eyes.
I sat on a wall while watching the eating, squabbling & playing. A biggish monkey started tugging at my skirt. I had my camera in one hand, so I showed him my other hand with palm up, so he could see I didn't have any food. Well, this must have been monkey sign language for 'please climb up me and come sit on my head'!!! Because that is exactly what he did. He started fossicking in my hair (must have been looking for that secret stash of bananas I hid in my hair this morning!) A guide came running over & told me to stand up & start walking, which I immediately did. Fortunately the monkey climbed down without biting me or nicking my sunnies or earrings! A couple of American tourists came up to me & told me with much admiration, that I was very brave letting the monkey climb on me! Like I had a choice! I was beginning to feel that perhaps the wildlife in Bali have it in for me!
There is a 14th century temple inside the forest, which was down a steep path. I'm not keen on steep paths as I know what goes down has to turn around & climb back up - namely me! There were a few adolescent monkeys sitting on the fence posts leading to the path. I admit to quickly scurrying past, until monkey-free! The temple at the bottom was small & covered in the inevitable moss with a statue of Ganesha at the back. Surrounding the temple where banyan trees with the most amazing hanging aerial root systems. I love these trees and there are some prime examples here in this forest. I often wonder how old they are?
There is another temple in the monkey forest - Pura Dalem (temple of the dead) which has always been closed whenever I have visited in the past. It was open this time, and a couple of guys were accepting donations to go in. I paid a small donation, borrowed a temple scarf & went in. The mother monkey with her baby were in there. For some reason she was licking the bricks. I asked a guide why they do this, but he didn't know. While I was watching them, a local woman who sells bananas to tourists let out a rebel yell outside the other side of the temple & a stream of monkeys rushed over the wall & through the temple towards her. I took a few shots & then batteries went flat in my camera. I had a back up set of ordinary batteries fortunately, but the trick was getting them in quickly without alerting the monkeys, as they might associate any rummaging through my bag as a cue for food. Phew! Made it in time - only had to warn one off, who took my shooing it away gracefully! There were a pair of ornately decorated doors in the temple, highlighted with gold paint. Mother monkey was very obliging and went and sat in front of one for an ideal photo shot.
As I wandered back to entrance, I heard some screeching followed by a child's hysterical crying in the distance & knew that another monkey had accepted that accidental human hand signal and climbed up on them! So keep those hands out of sight, folks! LOL.
On my return walk, which was uphill, I spied a reflexology & massage salon, so I stopped in. The owner was very appreciative of my custom - she'd no customers for 2 days. So I had some reflexology & a 1/2 hour massage, both of which were a mixture of pleasure & pain, but I had the best sleep that night.
I went to Pizza Bagus for dinner, which is a short walk from the hotel in the opposite direction to Ubud. My pizza was very good - the best I had eaten in Bali. (I think I was on a quest to find the best, along with the best pineapple juice!) There were an amazing number of mosquitoes in this restaurant, which made easy pickings for the dozen or so ghekos on the ceiling. I spent my time there watching them sneak up on their prey, in between swatting them off me. I gave the shuttle the night off, seeing that the restaurant was literally 5 minutes away & walked back.
The next day I went to the Bali Bird Park in Batubulan. It was quite good - beautiful tropical gardens with quite a few big free flying birds - some macaws, cockatoos, pelicans & flamingos. The rest were in cages & some in walk-though enclosures where they could fly inside. There were a couple of myna birds which could talk in both English & Indonesian, & one could sing. The macaws were gorgeous - vivid reds, blues, greens & yellows. The birds were calling out a lot & the biggest culprit was a white Australian cockatoo! Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi! (in bird language!)
I had my photo taken with a macaw on one arm & a black cockatoo on the other. It was nice that no payment is required to have your photo taken. The black cockie tried to eat my watch band. Good to see that I am not being discriminated against as I am attacked this time by Australian wildlife!
Though the park is very shaded, it was very hot & humid. I took myself to the restaurant in the park for a cold drink. There were quite a few people there having their buffet lunch. I was too late for the flying bird show. Next time...
My last day. I filled the day with last minute shopping in Legian, a final dip in the Kumala Pantai pool & reminder sms to the family to come get me from the airport on arrival. Had lunch at Indo National, which was yummy.
For my last night, I treated myself to dinner at Gado Gado restaurant in Seminyak. The first time I ate here was for free - a promotion when Air Paradise was in its infancy. I have returned a couple of times since & never been disappointed. Nor was I. The food was lovely, the staff attentive & the sunset sublime. Failed to read the fine print about tax not being included in the menu prices before I blew my taxi fare on a Baileys on the rocks to complete my evening. Luckily my taxi driver let me stop off at an ATM so I could pay him for the ride home.
Well, my 10 days in paradise had drawn to a close. I was a bit worried about the weight of my suitcase - I had been told that they are really cracking down at the airport & charging for excess weight. It's a bit hard to judge how heavy the suitcase is in kgs just by lifting it. Feels bloody heavy but I was only 2kg over & nothing was said.
It took forever to get checked in. I hate the wait at the airport more than anything - it's the absolute worst part of my holiday. Probably because I'm leaving. I was sold some Aussie $2 coins from a porter with the last of my larger currency & used my last few rupiah on a couple of bags of those delicious honey-roasted peanuts that only Bali do best. My plane to Melbourne is full - tragic! I was hoping to be able to spread out over a couple of seats. Oh well. Only a few long hours later & I am home. I missed my pets & my waterbed while I was away. Now I miss the smells & sounds of my favorite place on earth. Until next time......
Thanks for listening.
Merril.