When I learned that there was a monkey forest in Ubud, I knew that we had to visit it while we were in Bali. Its official name is the Sacred Monkey Forest of Padangtega. Approximately 605 long-tailed macaques live in the monkey forest. It was amazing to see so many monkeys wandering around.

The monkey forest was, of course, set among a forest. The trails were lovely since it was so lush and verdant. The monkey forest is also the site of a Balinese Hinduism temple. The monkeys are believed to be capable of guarding the temple against evil spirits.

Mr. Selfish, my cousin, and I all had cameras. We had a field day since there were so many photo ops.

Finally, my cousin got a little too close to one of the monkeys. She smiled at it, and it took it as a sign of aggression and grabbed her. Mr. Selfish and I were cracking up, and fortunately, he caught the entire scene with his camera.

I highly recommend the monkey forest. It was beautiful and very surreal to be close to so many monkeys. I wouldn’t recommend baring your teeth at them though.