Bali has an entire temple dedicated to macaque monkeys, and of course, they roam freely throughout the grounds. This little slice of heaven is known as the Monkey Forest. Our tour guide took us there because, well, let's be real - if there's a place where you can interact with monkeys, you bet your ass I'll be going there. Apparently over the past several years, the monkeys have become much more well behaved. You used to have to be careful about cameras or sunglasses, but not anymore. Unless you have food or water bottles, they generally don't try to steal anything from you. If they do try to take something, let them have it - they're much stronger than you and will definitely win a fight.
Anyway, I beamed with excitement seeing my first monkey in the wild. It was so cool and adorable! The monkeys were everywhere. In the trees, on the ground, playing, sleeping, eating... There were young monkeys, old monkeys, and baby monkeys! They were awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!
Of course, you have the option to feed the monkeys. That's when they really start interacting with you. They have a little banana stand in the park where a woman with a large stick (to scare away the monkeys from stealing the stash) will sell you a bunch of bananas for not much money. The key is to ask her to hold the bunch for you and give you one banana at a time. We never would've known to do this. If you don't the monkeys will just steal the entire bunch at once from you, as evidenced by the shrieking girl that got mobbed by three of them at once. They have you hold the banana high over your head, and a monkey will just walk up to you, climb up, and take it. Sometimes they'll just sit on your shoulder and eat it, other times they'll just climb back down. One of the big monkeys made good friends with me, and would sit on me for a while to eat his snack. Susanna gave it a shot, but she wasn't a big fan of the monkeys climbing all over you, as evidenced by her reaction in the pictures below.
