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We were true tourists today!
We hired the driver that Ros put us in touch with for the day. His name is Wira, a very friendly and pretty anglofied local. He had a lot of information and was happy to recommend places to stop on the way to our known destinations. On the way to Uluwatu, a well-known cliff-side temple, we stopped at a 5-star resort beach. Even if you’re not staying there, you are welcome to use the beach. And it is gorgeous. The crystal blue waters of the beach are made sort-of private being closed off on either side by little islands. One island is very jungle-like and the other contains a garden with statues and a tree planted by officials from many countries in the world. There is also a garden of sharp volcanic rock that looked very alien. The shore was lined by a manufactured “traditional Indonesian village” complete with ocean-side bungalows and even a beached pirate ship. We decided not to go swimming in the warm waters because we were eager to get to encounter monkeys at Uluwatu!
When we arrived at Uluwatu, I put on my new sarong. If you didn’t bring your own and your legs are showing, they let you borrow one. Everyone is also handed a sash to wear. Before we entered, we asked our driver about the monkeys. Having heard so many horror stories about monkeys biting, attacking, and stealing belongings, we had done a lot of research. We learned that you shouldn’t make eye-contact or smile as those are both threatening gestures. If a monkey grabs something of yours, immediately let go or they will bite. Wira said that the monkeys will come right up and steal your glasses if you wear them and would take any jewelry or hats, but that cameras and phones are okay, they won’t go digging into our pockets. The rest is common sense, things like don’t sneak in food and don’t reach for them.
The temple was breathtaking! The main monuments stood at the very top of a cliff and looking over it you have a straight shot hundreds of feet down to the water. There were stone pathways, covered in moss, that liked the cliff and took you through little sections of jungle.
The views were very impressive, but as we walked all over the place we became disappointed that we hadn’t seen a single monkey. We assumed it was the extreme heat and humidity, which we were struggling to cope with. But as we made our way back to the entrance along a more quiet path, we began to see pieces of sweet potatoes, corn cobs, and berries on the ground. We peered into the bushes and saw several pairs of eyes looking back. Monkeys, finally!
As we continued along the path, we saw more and more of them. And where the path ended at the edge of the cliff, we saw a couple of them come out into the open. We stood very still and they walked right by us finding patches of shade. A woman nearby bent down to look at one of them and her sunglasses, which had been perched on top of her hat, fell off. One of the monkeys immediately darted out and fetched them before she could even reach for them. In an instant, the creature flattened them, pulled off the rubber bits and licked the frames over. She giggled and waited for a while, but gave up when she felt she wouldn’t be getting them back and left. When the heat was too much to bear, we said goodbye to the little ones, satisfied to have had a monkey encounter.
