Suprise in Monkey Forest

When Lindsay and I arrived in Ubud,
Bali our first order of business was finding her Ashtanga yoga
school. To do so we had to pass through the magical Monkey Forest,
one of the city’s primary attractions. As is usual, we were
traveling with a fruit supply. I was carrying a grocery bag full of
bananas in my left hand, and using my right to eat a wani, the Balinese white mango. This was a pretty messy enterprise: Picture a
beard full of wani even before the monkeys got involved.

deceptively cute

Pretty soon after entering the forest,
monkeys started approaching and showing interest in my half eaten
fruit. Several jaunted over to block my path and extended arms toward
the wani. I held it up and kept on walking. This was no big deal, I’d
encountered monkey beggars before, but very quickly things escalated.

I can’t recall the exact sequence of
events, probably because the experience left me flooded with
adrenaline. Lots of monkeys were lining our path, some larger ones
moved directly in front of me. When a monkey climbed up me to get
the white mango, I shook him off and he showed his fangs. That was
spooky. Since I am a runner, I meet lots of aggressive dogs and I
know how to deal with them. I jump towards them and show anger. My
tactics didn’t faze the monkeys a bit, not even kicking towards them.
I just got more fangs.

Yum, motorcycle seat

Then another came and jumped, clawing
at the grocery bag. It tore easily and spilled bananas on the ground.
These were carried of quickly, despite my kicking. When a really
hefty fellow tried for the wani, I was clawed in the process of
defending it. I have a cut healing on my wrist. Hopefully I don’t
have any cool monkey diseases.

I did emerge from the forest with my
wani intact, but met a really large monkey outside. After the
skirmish in the forest I was scared. I actually retreated into a shop
to finish  my fruit while the bully waited outside, sitting in the middle of the street, watching me.