Ubud, Bali

     While in Bali, we went to Ubud. It has a little more culture for you to see instead of the tourist, beach areas. The first place that we went to was Monkey Forest. I was told that this place was scary, because the monkeys will attack you, but I didn't really think anything of it. We were walking along, and the monkeys were all over the place! I mean they were right next to you on the pathway. Some of them were eating and others were just kind of hanging out. Before you go in there is a sign that tells you all of the "rules" of being in the Monkey Forest. Let's just say I am glad that I had all of my belongings close to me. It was a very beautiful place that you could walk around in, with the monkeys of course.
     When we got to the top of the hill near the temple there were lots of people up there. We saw one guy that was hanging onto some food and teasing the monkey. Of course, the monkey crawled right up his arm and took the food out of his hand. They are not afraid to approach you. We also saw another instance where a man and a woman had a guidebook out and one of the monkeys came and stole it from them. They are sneaky little devils. The man actually chased the monkey down over the bank into the forest to get his book back. Not long after he came back up, and he actually had gotten the book back from the monkey. Haha.
     If you sat down on the rock ledges, the monkeys would actually come and sit next to you or on your lap. There was this one guy that had a necklace on, and he had a monkey come up and sit right on his lap. The monkey sat there and played with his necklace. The monkey was so cute...so you think! There was one girl who the monkeys did not like at all. They actually bit her! They either like you or they don't, I guess.

     While I was sitting down on the ledge a monkey came over next to me, and I asked Amber to get a picture. She took my camera and she actually got two. There is no better way than to just show you what happened in the two pictures.

The monkey looks like he wants to get inside my bag. 

Attack of the monkey!

     Amber didn't even mean to take the second one. My camera took two pictures and it was like a before and after picture. I was so surprised, as you can see from the picture, when the monkey jumped on me. He jumped right on me and hopped over my shoulder. Then he ran down the bank. Haha, what an experience. I didn't sit down on the ledges anymore after that.
     As we were walking along after that, Danna, was taking a picture of a monkey that was right in front of us on the pathway. All of a sudden, a monkey comes up and jumps on her backpack and tries to grab her water bottle. Now, I don't think I would have done this, but Danna's first instinct was to grab at the monkey. Haha, she wanted to fight the monkey for her water bottle. I was just like, Danna! What are you doing?! She let go of the monkey and it had her water bottle. Then when the monkey did drop her water bottle, she was too busy taking a picture that she didn't grab it. Another monkey picked it up! One of the guys that worked there came over and distracted the monkey so that we could get the water bottle back. Of course the water bottle went inside her backpack after that.
     I have never been so close to monkeys in my life. It was quite the experience, and I do believe the lady who told me not to go there because the monkeys are scary. If you are smart though, they won't really bother you.
     We ate at a pretty good restaurant that served pork before going to the Royal Palace. When we got to the Royal Palace, we just walked around the area and checked it out. We took a lot of pictures, and we actually saw some of the Royal family coming in and out of some of the buildings. Here are some of the pictures that I took while I was there.