Jeff and Maya got us a driver to take us up to Ubud. On the way there, are a ton of small towns that are all merchant villages. Strangely, each of them has specialized items. There is a village that only makes Batik, one that only makes carved statues, etc...



Ubud is a town in central Bali which hosts the Monkey Forest. The Monkey Forest is a sacred forest that has become a tourist location. Our guide book told us to bring food because the monkeys expect it and if you don't, they will become angry. Lies! All Lies! We bought some banana bits and plunged into the roest. We came to a sign that gave us the rules:

1) Don't touch the monkeys
2) Don't touch the trees

but my favorite...



After reading Rule #5, I arrange the two bags of bananas in my fingers so that I can drop them seperately. So... the first monkey we encounter is what I will come to describe as a medium-sized monkey (about 1.5 feet tall). I open a bag and pull out a banana piece and toss it to him/her. The monkey walks past it then RUSHES AT ME, baring its fangs and screeching! I yelped and dropped one of the bags of food and backed away. He grabbed the bag of food and ran off. Evil monkey. On our way out, I think I saw the same monkey do the same thing to someone else. The monkies are scary.

Jenn posted a bunch of cute monkey pictures on her journal... my version of the monkies look more like this:



We walked through the forest, Jenn taking pictures and me on look out. At one point I got blind-sided! Jenn was taking a picture, I was standing behind her looking right when on the left a monkey runs at me, jumps and smacks into my hip!! Scared the shit out of me!!! Overall, the monkies ARE cute, but too damn scary.



Next.... Santi Mandala. Online it says out resort is in Ubud. Our driver didn't know where it was and neither did anyone he talked to... he searched while we were in the forest. Then we droce into Ubud to find tourist information to find Santi Mandala. We finally get directions and start driving, and driving. We stop again to ensure we are on the right track. Finally.... we arrive. The resort is NOT IN Ubud. In fact, the town we are in is closer to Denpasar than to Ubud!

Also, it looks like we are the only people at the resort, we may be the first people to stay in this room. Which would explain why no one has heard of this place. That being said... the resort is GORGEOUS.



The room is lavish, our view is amazing. We overlook the pool and into the jungle. It's gorgeous. Strange bit: The bathroom is outside. I don't mean like an outhouse, I mean, the door to our bathroom opens to a partially enclosed room. Half tiled with a sink, toilet and tub... the other half is a step down onto some rough tile and a bed of smooth stones. The bed of smooth stones is where the open air shower sprays. Very odd. The shower is ass, it's hard to get it to spray where you want.



The view here is really gorgeous.