Monkey on my back

The city of Ubud on the island of Bali is known for it's traditional dances, visual arts, and a protected forest filled with monkeys and a Hindu temple.


We spent several hours wandering through the monkey forest watching the little guys beg for bananas, steal things from purses, pick bugs off of each other, and all other sorts of monkey behavior.

After an hour or so we sat down to rest for a minute when a monkey jumped on my back and sat on my head for a while.  I can honestly tell you the phrase "I've got a monkey on my back" is entirely true... it is near to impossible to get a monkey off of your back without help.



I also did overhear this hilarious concersation:

A Japanese family who are young with a small child, the woman has a giant Louis Vuitton purse, cut off denim shorts and 4 inch wedge heels.  The husband in a crisp white polo t-shirt.

They approach the forest's "Monkey Expert" with a question.  However, English is the only language they share so there is a definitely language gap between the two parties.

Japanese woman: "He has bite.  Monkey bite"  She's pointing to her husband's arm where he is holding a wet wipe against his forearm.
Monkey Expert: "It's okay"
JW: "You have medicine?"
ME: "Yes, by entrance"
JW: "But, is monkey bite.  Is okay?"  At this point she's starting to become more worried by the nonchalance of the Monkey Expert
ME: "Yea, no rabies here"

The monkey expert walks off leaving the Japanese couple bewildered and me with muffled laughter.


This monkey had found an empty aerosol bottle of air freshener somewhere and was treating it as if it was the most amazing and valuable gem ever discovered

1 comments- my fav!:

Allan Simonds said...

Oh, but he forgot the leaf.

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