Admit it, this one's pretty cute.
I've noticed that most people who have encountered monkeys are not very fond of them. This is understandable, given that most people associate the word monkey with the grey macaques that are found throughout Southeast Asia. This is a type of monkey that has become acclimatized to humans, and is often found in large packs in urban areas where they intimidate tourists. But if you give them their space, they are awfully fun to watch.
I especially enjoy observing the similarities between human behavior and monkey behavior. It doesn't take long to realize that much of what we do as humans is simply our way of manifesting our inner primate. Babies cling to mothers, juveniles are rowdy, siblings squabble, and adults just want the kids to behave and let them have their peace.
Ubud's Sacred Monkey Forest
One of my favorite places to watch monkeys is in Ubud's Sacred Monkey Forest, where monks care for a large population of macaques. We spent a morning here on our current trip, enjoying the peaceful setting and the antics of the monkeys. Unfortunately, at one point a monkey peed on Jake. Bad monkey! This is also where Jen had a monkey jump on her head a couple years ago. Yet despite these less-than-pleasant encounters, both Jen and Jake still like monkeys - and so should you. After all, most of the time the monkeys are well behaved and leave us humans alone.
At this point Jake thinks the monkey is pretty cute...
A moment later he isn't so sure.
Here's Jen in the same place a couple years ago.
The Sacred Monkey Forest really is a special place, and seeing macaques in such a beautiful setting makes me appreciate my simian cousins.
After we left Ubud, we went to West Bali National Park, where they have black Java Monkeys. These are a type of langur, or leaf monkey, with specialized stomachs for digesting leaves. The langurs are beautiful, with meter long tails and very expressive faces. On a morning nature walk we came across a family of them that had a young baby. The infants are orange colored, and all the females take turns caring for them. Because the langurs are vegetarians, they don't try to take people's food, so they enjoy a better reputation than the macaques. In fact, at our resort, when the workers were happy to see the black monkeys, but they always yelled at the macaques and chased them away.
Cuter than a macaque, don't you agree?
The babies are orange, but only for a short time after being born. We were lucky to see one.
