Monkey Park

Ubud is a small town that draws a lot of the artsy crowd. Many of the local craftspeople have shops here so the place is full of paintings; many quite gorgeous, carvings; gigantic, gorgeous, practical, tiny, obscene or intricate, pottery; practical, decorative and everything in between. It’s also the source of those huge rock sculptures you see in many places. It really does have the most interesting shops.
It is also the home of the Monkey Forest, a small preserve that is the home for hundreds of macaque monkeys. Let me tell you, they’ve taken the place over. The humans, who think they own the place, actually are there to serve the monkeys. First, they’ve been directed to sell bananas to the unsuspecting tourists. The monkeys are extremely perceptive, quickly identifying which tourists succumbed to the sales pitch and which failed to recognize the need to have bananas. Immediately identifying the correct humans, they gathered around the person, waiting for the handout. Each used different techniques…there was the pathetic hang dog look that let you know it was certain that the animal was going to die at your feet if you didn’t feed it. They also used the sweet and adorable routine…worked very well for the young monkeys capering around. The overworked mother also appeared with the younger crew clinging to her fur - and she rarely shared her haul with them, guess she figured they needed to learn the cute routine.
Now some humans, not being well trained yet, thought they could tempt the monkeys into performing for them…stand up, sit, roll over, and beg. That didn’t go over well with these guys. Their response was a very firm, jump on the person, grab the banana and beat it out of there. The human was usually left in a state of total surprise. Some monkeys preferred a bit more terror, scrambling up the leg or landing on the head. Either move was sufficient for them to get the banana – and sometimes the entire bunch.
People were also warned that they should watch their purses and glasses, monkeys had been known to steal anything they could (particularly from those people who failed to bring them any food).
Once you made it past the entrance (believe me, no bananas survived in a human’s hand past about 50 feet into the park), the monkeys became much calmer and returned to more monkey activities, chasing each other, grooming, eating greens, and mating. There’s a large temple in the center of the preserve. While it is still used by people at certain times of the year, it is not open to visitors (most of the temples in the country are closed the same way and if you do get to go in, you need to wear a sarong and sash – provided by the temple for a fee). It is remarkable how much the style of the temples is repeated in hundreds of the buildings and gates around the country.