Bali is super crowded with tourists and is extremely densely packed with shops, hotels, and restaurants catering to the tourists. The only break in commercialism are the temples found on nearly every block. The traffic is one big log jam from Denpasar to Ubud. Surprisingly though, once we arrived at our hotel, Green Bird Villa, we felt like were in an oasis.
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| Entrance to Green Bird Villa |
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| Our cabin was the left one. |
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| Our bed was on the main floor |
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| The kids slept in the loft. |
We dropped our bags and immediately left again to walk to the Sacred Monkey Forest Sanctuary. The entrance to the forest is very beautiful, with lots of carvings and statues.
We warned the kids about the dangers of monkeys, especially the very real risk of getting bitten. We had friends who had to get rabies shots due to a close encounter with a monkey in the Philippines and we did not want to repeat that. So, we were to walk slowly through the forest, keeping a safe distance from the monkeys. Don't scream, don't bare your teeth, don't make eye contact, and no sudden movements. We brought no food with us and no plastic water bottles, nothing that would attract them to us. ...... except Hello Kitty.
We walked on, and continued to come into very close contact with the monkeys. They were not shy.
As I was recording a video of a group of monkeys playing and grooming each other, a monkey jumped on Willow's head. I don't know how that came to be since I was facing the other way, but Eric told her to just keep walking until it jumped off.
Afterwards, we saw evidence of monkeys stealing items from tourists. One was holding a car key, another a lotion bottle, and still another a water bottle.
Eventually, the magnetism between Willow and the monkeys got to be too much and we decided to leave. It was dinner time anyways. We ate at Taco Casa. So so good.
Here's an interesting side note about a certain kind of coffee sold in Bali. It's called Kopi Luwak coffee. It is made from coffee cherries that have been eaten, partially digested, and pooped out of the Asian palm civet. We saw one of these civets outside of a coffee shop during our walk through Ubud. We did not drink the coffee though. Not only did it sound disgusting, but it is also the most expensive coffee in the world.
Back at the hotel, the kids enjoyed a swim in the hotel pool under the full moon. It was also Friday, the 13th! <cue the Twilight Zone theme song>
The next morning we got picked up by our tour guide to Mason Elephant Park. It was a little bit raining and misty as we drove through rice paddy fields about an hour to the park.
We had booked the activity called Jumbo Wash at the park. This meant we got to bathe the elephants. It was so cool!
The elephant we were assigned to bathe was a dancer, a shaker and a mover. She did not stand still ever. We were given hoses and brushes and were told to stand on either side of her to wash down her sides. We had to take a step forward and then backward to keep up with her constant swaying.
There were two rules: do not walk behind the elephant and do not try to make a noise like an elephant. You'll notice in the video that not everyone followed those rules. Thankfully no one got hurt because of it. We really had so much fun and it turned into a bit of a water fight.
After the bathing, we walked around the park, seeing the other elephants.
Then we sought out the baby elephant. Arjuna was born June 25th, making him only 11 weeks old when we saw him.
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| baby Arjuna |
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| baby's Mama Fatima |
We found a big swing at the edge of the park, overlooking some rice paddies.
Our next activity was feeding the elephants.
After all this fun, we had a big buffet lunch and then went back to the hotel.
Our trip to Indonesia, including Bali, Labuan Bajo and all of Komodo National Park was so incredible and far surpassed our expectations. Every day offered a new experience and adventure. I hope the memories never fade. It was 2 months ago and I'm still writing about it!
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