Uluwatu & The Trouble With Monkeys

Our first day in Bali, I had arranged for a little bit of sightseeing and a bunch of relaxing. Besides, we were jetlagged after 48 hours of travel and layovers!

We had arranged for a driver and private tour guide through the hotel. While this sounds awfully luxe, it was incredibly cheap; around $80 for ten hours versus a group tour that would have had a set itinerary and probably cost upwards of $50 per person. I had given the hotel our itinerary in advance so our driver knew where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do.

Our first stop was Uluwatu Temple. I had seen so many photos of Bali on Pinterest and the photos I had seen of Uluwatu were some of my favorites. When we got to the temple, the ticket handler tied yellow sashes around our waists (to show respect to the temple) and advised us to beware of monkeys. I had prepared myself for monkeys in the monkey forest but had totally forgotten that they would be wandering around here as well. We secured all of our sunglasses and hats and walked in.

The views were incredible and the ocean breeze was so lovely. It was a gorgeous sunny day and everything was absolutely beautiful. Even the monkeys were behaving. Or so I thought.

On our way out, I heard our tour guide say "Uh oh". I turned and out of the corner of my eye, saw a small monkey clutching my camera. All articles say to not fight the monkeys lest they attack but frankly, when one sneaks up on you, you forget how to react. I looked down and screamed. In my case, this worked out because apparently, I scared the living shit out of that monkey and he promptly froze with his hands in the air like a criminal with a gun to his head. I briskly walked (or ran) away and when I turned back, the monkey was standing in the same position and staring at me like I had just tried to rob HIM. Looking back, this was hilarious. At the time, it was a little terrifying. 

I think this was the culprit.