End of the second day in Bali now, and I don’t want to leave. So for now, I won’t. I’ll change my flight to Bangkok to give me another two weeks here, so I’ll plan to leave around the middle of September which should give me enough time to explore the island, and maybe Java as well (yes, people have named coffee and internet software after this island in Indonesia).
I’ve taken 500 photos since leaving China, not only with my digital SLR which I’ve finally been reunited with after 3 months of separation, but also the digital Elph which I bought 2 months ago but didn’t actually receive until last week. So, photos everywhere.
Yesterday was a really eventful day, spent mostly at the Elephant Cave and the Monkey Forest. Both beautiful places. The Monkey Forest was especially great. This place has hundreds of monkeys all over the place, apparently just chilling and having fun. People come in and give them bananas and food (you can buy bananas to feed them at the entrance), and they’re very sociable and friendly. When I walked down the narrow pathway to the wide center of the forest there were about 30 monkeys here and there just hanging out, eating bananas or whatever. They’re not afraid of humans at all; they’ll run right up to you and grab your leg and climb up on you, relentlessly trying to be cute and get free bananas. I took a lot of photos, but the conditions were difficult – the jungle is so dense in there that foliage prevents direct sunlight from actually hitting them during the day. The forest itself is unbelievable, and as we walked along the path a small group of monkeys came along with us, most of of them swinging through vines and jumping between tree branches. They definitely have that shit down to a science. Seeing monkeys up close like that isn’ something I’ve ever had the opportunity to see, but one thing that was really apparent to me was how human-like they are. Their eyes, movement, and their appendages are very human-like. It’s actually a little creepy being face to face with a monkey. You can sense the intelligence by how they move and interact with people and with eachother. This was nothing like seeing glazed and sedated sleep-all-day monkeys in a zoo.