Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud, Bali

It’s been a while ago but definitely always has been on my bucket list before to go to the monkey forest in Ubud, Bali. If not in Asia you barely have any opportunities to get this close to monkeys so I have really been looking forward to it. In fact, after I arrived in Bali at Denpasar airport I headed straight to Ubud for two days.

The first day I used for just walking around, seeing some temples and getting an impression from Indonesia in general, while the second day I went to the Monkey Forest. I did not really plan anything before coming to Bali, I just knew that I wanted to scuba dive on the Gili islands and go see the monkeys.

It was about a 35 minute walk away from my hostel which was located up a hill and not really hard to find. You will have to go down this long road full of souvenir jobs and cute little restaurants so you might want to have a look there as well.

Arriving at a sign that said something like “Sacred Monkey Forest” I already saw a few monkey sitting on top this little hut where you are buying your tickets and looking at the visitors. The entry fee was 20.000 IDR when I visited the Monkey forest (=1,42 euros) but I heard they have raised the price to 40.000 IDR for adults, which, however, is still affordable and absolutely worth the money. The forest itself is open from 8.30am to 6pm daily.

Walking in, it’s just like a little forest with little paths, statues, temples and a bunch of monkeys. Make sure to not take out any food and keep all your belongings close to you as the monkeys tend to try to steal your stuff and might also stretch you by accident, so be sure to have all your shots sorted out before going to Indonesia just in case.

Other than that it was such a great experience to see the monkeys run around and play and you can also buy bananas to feed them with and hold them over your head to make the monkeys climb up on your shoulders. This really makes a great picture if you are fast enough.

There is a little waterfall and a river where the monkeys will climb around which is really nice to watch. Overall the Monkey Forest has been such a nice experience that I always like to look back at and I will definitely  pay this place a visit again if I am ever back in Bali. It is really affordable for budget travellers and a great opportunity to get close to the monkeys.

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