Monkey Whisperer

Here we are, with our epic trip on the homestretch. It’s been an amazing adventure-filled journey, and we are taking it all in with one more full week in our rooted town of Uluwatu before heading to Lembongan to close it out. We truly do feel like locals around here as we are recognized and waved to with a big smile by many of the locals along the main road. We have left our mark on this town and have been privileged to call it home for the past 2 months. Chantal and I spent a few days in Ubud when we were here in February, and we both agreed that we should revisit the food and yogi capital of Bali with a side of a monkey forest. For the movie lovers, Ubud is shown in “Eat, Pray, Love” and really does a great job showing the culture and arts of this hipster area.

On a whim, we booked a one-night stay in a villa walking distance from central Ubud, packed a small backpack, and zipped ourselves up there on the motor scooter. This was, by far, the longest journey we made on the scooter that composed of 34 miles of local roads, highways, tolls, and bridges over the beautiful Bali Sea. Mind you, this was a 2 hour trek through towns, cow-filled country lands, traffic areas that we weaved through, and uneven terrain, but we flew through like the locals we were.

We arrived in Ubud before check-in to get a head start to the day. We dropped our bag at the villa and hit the town running. Ubud gives off a strong energy that you can feel, with lifted cafés overlooking the streets, detailed and vibrant architecture, busy roads, and people walking in every direction. There was one “touristy” place that we had been before and had to go back to, and that was the Sacred Monkey Forest… dun dun dunnnn. I absolutely fell in love with the monkeys last time (as much as they fell in love with me) and I had to catch up with the homies to see how they’ve been.

Entering the forest, the monkeys were everywhere, and the tourists were holding bananas above their heads begging for a monkey to jump on them. If anything, the furry friends of mine would run up their backs, rip the banana out of their hands and scurry off before the tourist's friend could take a picture of the act. Little did they know, the “Monkey Whisperer” was in the building. I went up to the first group of monkeys I saw, calmly put my arm up to them, looked them dead in the eye, and gave a little wink. With no exaggeration, these guys ran up on me, sat on my shoulders and arms, and chilled while random tourists jealously took pictures. “This guy doesn’t need bananas? Who does he think he is?” “None of your business, ma’am. Have a nice day.”

I gently let my friends hop off, and walked away. It was one of those "drop the mic, and walk off stage" moments. Chantal and I enjoyed walking around the monkey forest, taking a bunch of action shots of each other with our furry friends.

We built up an appetite from walking around the streets of Ubud and running with the monkeys, and I almost forgot about the fried duck that I have craved since our last trip to Ubud. I had to have the Bebek Fried Duck. Chantal researched the best spots for it, and we enjoyed an amazing duck dinner with huge geckos crawling above our heads. “Excuse me sir, is that huge reptile-looking thing real up there?” “Oh, it's just gecko.” Good ol’ Indonesia for ya.

We did Ubud right for the 24 hours we had there, and had an awesome villa to sleep in with my favorite bug nets that surrounded the bed. The villa was called Kampoeng Joglo Abangan, and I definitely recommend it for only $40/night. We embarked on our journey back to Uluwatu the next morning and traveled safe and sound, with a pit stop at a local McDonalds. For some reason, the McDoubles and Fish Fillet just tasted so much better in Indonesia. What a great trip, yet again!

CB & J

CB & J

Adventures Abroad

CB & J

Monkey Whisperer