monkeys

while in bali we went to a place called monkey forest.  it is a large sanctuary in the middle of the city where wild monkeys live.  people can walk through the forest and explore while watching monkeys go about their daily routines.  

before entering the forest there are tables set up with women selling bananas for people to buy and feed the monkeys.  since monkeys are ryan's favorite animal, we thought we had better have a real encounter with them.

we were warned that the monkeys can be very aggressive if you have food, or they think you have food.  at one point i took off my earrings and opened my back pack to put the earrings inside and a monkey must have thought that i had food, so he quickly climbed onto my shoulders and hung out for a few minutes.

since visiting the forest, we have a new running joke in our family.  it goes something like this: "hey, remember that time we went to bali and had the most relaxing vacation ever, except for when ryan got rabies."

yes, it's true.  the monkey sitting on ryan's shoulders in the picture below bit him on the head and neck because ryan wasn't giving the monkey all his bananas.  he was throwing some bananas at a smaller monkey a few feet away who looked very hungry.  apparently it's a known monkey forest fact that the larger monkeys have first dibs.

shortly after our monkey forest visit, we went to the hospital so that ryan could get rabies shots, just to be safe.

despite the whole rabies thing, i would still recommend visiting the monkey forest.  just don't feed the smaller monkeys first if there are larger monkeys present.