Ubud Monkey Forest in Bali

Nice monument at the entrance to the park. It was about $3 USD each to enter the park.

We were very excited to go to see the monkeys. As soon as we started our walk through the park, you could see these little gray monkeys coming out of every nook cranny available.

One of the older monkeys being lazy.

We were asked not to touch them and to keep our purses or backpacks closed because they were sneaky little devils. I was leaning up against a railing when one whisked behind me and almost scared me out of my skin.

Grooming time.

The park was adapted to them. Trees and vines all through the park for them to climb on. The formal name of the sanctuary is Mandala Suci Wenara Wana, or more well known as Ubud Monkey Forest. It is the sanctuary and natural habitat of the Balinese long-tailed Monkey’s.

Mom sharing a treat with her baby.

While the keeper was chopping up sweet potatoes for everyone, this guy would tap him on the shoulder and he would pull out a corn and give to him. He knew what we wanted!

Their scientific name is Macaques monkeys. There are a little over 1000 monkeys living in this sanctuary. And they are not kidding. They are all ages from a tiny baby to an old man. They stay in groups of families and take care of each other.

Their “hairstyle” intrigued me. I tried to talk Chuck into getting his cut this way. 😆

This guys knife was very sharp! He was slicing sweet potatoes in half with one chop!

We saw a few of them that crossed each other at feeding time and they ran the other monkey clear off the area! This Sacred Monkey Forest is a famous tourist attraction in Ubud. There are around 10,000 – 15,000 average visitors monthly that come to see the Monkey Forest.

The one of the left was very vocal!

The size of the forest is 12.5 hectares and has approximately 186 species of plants and trees. It has 3 temples, namely Dalem Agung Padangtegal Temple, Holy Spring Temple and Prajapati Temple. The forest is owned by the Padangtegal community and is managed by Mandala Suci Wenara Wana Management.

Some of the interesting statues throughout the park.

The purpose of the management is to keep it sacred and promote the Monkey Forest Ubud as an international tourist destination. The village of Padangtegal owns the sanctuary and they view the Monkey Forest as an important spiritual, economic, educational, and conservation center for the village.

We saw several of the temples and a large banyan tree that I don’t remember seeing any monkeys climbing around it. They rest and sleep at night just as we do and are very active during the day. Their diet consists of sweet potato’s, bananas, corn, cucumbers and coconut.

They ask the visitors not to feed them because they are becoming obese and they can become aggressive if no more food is available. The keepers handle the aggressive monkeys with sling shots if they bother the guests. We didn’t see anything of that type but some screaming at each other did occur often.

One baby monkey took off and the mother caught it by the tail and pulled it back down. The baby didn’t like that at all! He screamed all the way back. It was hilarious!

A nice photo of the river and a bridge to cross. To the right exiting the bridge, there is a Komodo dragon statue.

The temples were pretty but we weren’t allowed to go inside of them so just took photos outside. There were many statues throughout the forest.

This bridge was in the middle of the banyan tree. Can you see the monkey running across?

Some quite interesting. We really had a good time but the 100% humidity and the 90F/32C degrees in temperature was almost unbearable. We drank a lot of water.

The trip was well worth it to see the monkeys in their own environment and not behind bars. We had a great time.

Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal Temple. This is the main temple

May God bless you always!

Chuck & Lea Ann

WorldTravelReynolds

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see. Gilbert K. Chesterton