Yesterday we went to the Monkey Forest in Ubud. There had clearly been talk among the kids at school about it and Owen and Henry had lots of advise about how to act around the monkeys. "Don't smile because if you show your teeth it is a sign of aggression." "Don't bring any bananas or food." "If you sit down, the monkeys will climb on you." "If the small monkeys bite it doesn't hurt much." "Let's just give the monkeys some space. They won't mess with us if we don't mess with them" I replied.
Everything was going smoothly, until we decided that it would be fun to see if any of them wanted to sit in our laps or climb on our heads. I suggested the boys take off their hats so the monkeys wouldn't think that maybe there was food under them. As soon as we sat down, a juvenile monkey came up to us, checked us out, explored if we had food and then moved on. Then another one came over and started exploring the boys hats lying in my lap. Thinking they weren't food and that therefore the monkeys would not be interested in them, I let the monkey sniff and chew a bit on Owen's hat. Then the monkey decided he wanted Owen's hat. I offered several trades, but all I had were banana peels from the ground or the sweet potatoes that the staff gives them. Not too tempting to the monkey. We finally asked one of the guards for help getting the hat back. Seeing the guard coming with a slingshot, the monkey took off with the hat up a tree. Several bigger monkeys moved in to get in on the action. There was a dance for dominance for a bit to see who would back off first. Although the slingshot was empty, in the end the guard got all the big monkeys to retreat and finally the small monkey dropped the hat and we retrieved it. All in all, an exciting trip to the Monkey Forest.
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