The Fear In Bali 1

Went to some beautiful temples, including one which is also a monkey sanctuary. As well as being tame, these monkeys could also be aggressive, apparently, and according to the publicity info, we should avoid being scratched or bitten at all costs.

Rather confusingly, we were asked to buy bananas to give to these monkeys that we were supposed to be avoiding. The logic was that by throwing bananas at them we could keep them away from us.

I also read that not having bananas for the monkeys makes them aggressive. Feed me or else is their maxim, it seemed.

We bought some bananas.

Being scared of things that are likely to bite me, I wanted to get through the sanctuary as quickly as possible. Every time a monkey approached, I’d throw a banana at it, which it would peel and eat. By the time it had finished, I had scarpered.

One monkey approached me from the front, blocking my path. I had two bananas left, but resourcefully threw one to my left for it to go and get while I kept walking, hoping to leave it in my wake. However, it grabbed the banana, unpeeled it and started eating it whilst chasing me at the same time. There was no way I was going to run and I also knew I couldn’t out-walk a monkey. It caught up with me and started tugging at the bottom of my shorts. This made Ella laugh uproariously. When I asked her what was so funny afterwards, she said it was because I looked so scared.

I threw my last banana at it. From then on, all the monkeys left me alone because I didn’t have any bananas left.

I saw nothing of the temple because I was too busy looking out for monkeys.


This photo is blurred because I was already scarpering.