Friday 6th February
We woke up and ate breakfast outside in the sunshine and then wandered into Ubud. The weather was great it was so warm and sunny, maybe a little too warm for the walk to the monkey forest.
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| Giant monkey statue! |
The walk was approximately 40 minutes and once we arrived we each paid the 30,000 idr entry fee. There were monkey everywhere and you could buy bananas to feed to them (approximately 20,000 idr), but in many places the monkeys seemed to be eating sweet potatoes. I guess that is what the sanctuary provides them.
The forest is quite large with a few different sections. We didn't manage to see it all however, as I ended up feel quite ill. I think it was the temperature and not eating enough for breakfast that got me, but we enjoyed ourselves none the less. We just wandered around and sat and watched the monkeys, they did some funny things. At some points the monkeys were climbing on people, I however was cautious as I had heard stories of the monkeys biting people. Even the lady who sat next to us on the plane from London told us that her friend had been bitten by one of the monkeys and ended up in hospital. So we kept our distance and admired them from a far.
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| Thirsty little monkey. |
We took a lot of photos of the monkeys and I have shown some below. However, one of the best things about walking through the monkey forest are the trees. They are massive and very impressive, with lots of vines growing/hanging from them. This is one of my favourite things about Bali, its the beauty of its nature. :)
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| Look at the vines! :) |
After walking around the monkey forest for a few hours, I really need to sit down and refuel. I had no energy! I don't know what was wrong with me I just felt ill. :( So went to the terrace view cafe for lunch. The terrace view cafe is on the street next to the monkey forest and offers fantastic views of some small rice fields. Due to the cafe being open to the elements (like many cafes in Ubud), you are practically sitting in the rice fields. Rob loved it! He said this was his favourite cafe in Ubud (we had only been to one other!).
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| Grooming |
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| Cutie on the edge of the forest! |
Later we walked to the other side of Ubud to check out the raw food cafe Alchemy. My friend Jen raved about it when she was there so we had to check it out. Unfortunately, we didn't try any food but we did grab some juice and a coconut! The cafe was great, it was a really nice place just to chill out. Free Wifi and comfy couches. Awesome!
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| Alchemy! |
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| Coconut |
For dinner we decided to go to the mini warung across the road from our hotel on the recommendation of our hotel owner, Tagel. The warung was very small with a few large tables in so could probably seat about 30 people maximum (that's if everyone is squashed together!). The menu had no vegetarian options but the hostess was nice enough to make me a veggie mie gorgeng instead of a chicken one. And oh my god it was delish! It was one of the tastiest meals I have ever had, I love noodles. Rob had some kind of chicken fried rice dish, he thoroughly enjoyed his too. What made it even better was the price! My meal cost 10,000 idr, which is about 60 p and it was a relatively large portion too, I was stuffed!
We then went for a wander to let our dinner go down, we thought about going to find the yoga barn but in the end couldn't be bothered walking that far and in the end settled for admiring to forest in a nearby restaurant (Gyrani bar) with a drink and some pancakes! Yum!
Look out for the next post! Take care!
Sam x
