The Ubud Monkey Forest is a nature reserve and Hindu temple

This cool and dense swathe of jungle, officially called Mandala Wisata Wanara Wana, houses three holy temples. The sanctuary is inhabited by a band of grey-haired and greedy long-tailed Balinese macaques who are nothing like the innocent looking doe-eyed monkeys on the brochures. Nestled in the forest, the interesting Pura Dalem Agung has a real Indiana Jones feel to it with the entrance to the inner temple featuring Rangda figures devouring children.

You can enter through one of the three gates: the main one at the southern end of Monkey Forest Rd; 100m further east, near the car park; or from the southern side, on the lane from Nyuhkuning. The forest has recently benefitted from an infusion of money. Useful brochures about the forest, macaques and temples are available. Note that the monkeys keep an eagle eye on passing tourists in hope of handouts (or an opportunity to help themselves). Don’t feed these creatures.

Across from the main entrance, the forest’s office accepts donations for a scheme to offset the carbon you created getting to Bali. Get a tree planted for 150,000Rp.

I’m a great fan of monkeys and apes. Back home my mum and I often visit Monkey World, an ape rescue centre in Dorset; when we went on safari in Kenya my favourite animal wasn’t one of the impressive big five, it was the gangster of the animal world – the baboon. So, I was pretty excited at the prospect of getting up close to some Macaques  at the Monkey Forest in Ubud – that was, until they started attacking us.

The Perils of the Monkey Forest

If you’ve never heard of the Bali Monkey Forest, here’s the lowdown. The forest forms a sanctuary for the monkeys, who are considered sacred and well protected; there’s even a temple inside the forest where people go to worship. Somewhere along the line the forest also became a tourist attraction. Visitors can stroll through it and see the monkeys up close, watch them play and eat, there’s even a woman outside the entrance selling bananas to feed them. Sounds like fun, right?

Before we even arrived we started hearing horror stories about the Monkey Forest; animals stealing cameras and wallets, chasing people and worse still, biting. A word about Macaques and monkeys in general – they might look cute but even the small ones are incredibly strong and have very big incisors. A bite can be extremely painful at the best of times, but in Bali there’s another hazard to consider – rabies.

The disease is quite widespread in Bali, we were warned by a doctor in Jakarta not to touch any animals on the island and to make sure we had our pre-rabies vaccines before we visited. Rabies can spend up to two years incubating in an animal before any symptoms appear and a bite from a rabid animal can be deadly if you’re infected and don’t receive treatment fast.

Since we’d already had our rabies vaccinations, however, we weren’t too worried. We’d be sensible and only take a camera with us so as not to attract the monkeys, we were prepared – it couldn’t be that bad, could it?

The Attack

Approaching the entrance to the forest we saw, with delight, the first monkeys swarming around the gate, playing, eating fruit and climbing around. As we ventured further in we stopped to watch the cute baby monkeys and some older, greedier ones snatching the best fruit dropped by the tourists. One man carrying a bag of fruit was pursued by a large monkey, who stood up on his hind legs snatching at the bag until its contents were empty.

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