Thieves in Monkey Forest

Thieves! I mean we did everything right. Or so we thought. We didn't walk around with valuables or things sticking out of our pockets. We left our plastic bags and souvenirs behind the guard post. But it happened anyway: monkey thieves! 

On our full-day tour of beautiful Ubud, we made our way to the small cute town itself and ultimately to the Monkey Forest. We actually almost skipped it. Boy are we glad we didn't.

Monkey Forest is...a forest...filled with monkeys! Walking through the jungle you see crumbling shrines, vines overtaking bridges, dense greenery and on top of it all, there are monkeys running amok everywhere, And these monkeys are menacing little beings! Snatching and grabbing and jumping on everything. Playing and rolling around in the pathways but hey they are entitled to it, afterall it's their home. 

The Monkey Forest was definitely one of the highlights of our daytrip to Ubud...even with what happened next.

So we walk out of Monkey Forest, grab our plastic bag of Balinese wooden bowls we bought literally 5 minutes before and make our way to the taxi. We thought we were in the clear! But a monkey had other plans.

About 10 ft before we climb into the taxi, a monkey runs over to Christian and pulls on the plastic bag (note: this is outside and across the street from the Monkey Forest walls). Christian tries to pull back but then figures he's no match for those fangs and drops the bag so the monkey can see that there is no food inside. Well he didn't find food but he did take one of the bowls hostage and took off running into the trees! 

The monkey chewed on the bowl, fiddled with the bubble wrap and eventually took off the bubble wrap and dropped it to the ground...taunting us humans below. Our taxi driver and some locals were trying to distract him and threw little things at home to get him to drop it. I mean this monkey was pretty high up there. And we were there...ready to catch the bowl at any moment.

In a quick second, as we laughed hysterically and turned our attention away (for just a moment!)...he dropped it. Now this Balinese bowl is not only a half-broken bowl, but a great (and hilarious!) memory from Bali.

Monkey: 1

Christian & Rachael: 0

Now looking for uses for a half-broken bowl....

{The monkey thief himself!}

{And our new half bowl souvenir ;)}