Monkeys monkeys everywhere and not a drop to drink! Wait...

After we left Yogyakarta, we headed up to Bali. Those who have been following our adventures may note that this is our second trip to Bali. The first one was our honeymoon trip, and featured lots of laying by the pool, having tropical drinks, and pretty much indulging ourselves. This trip featured things like climbing a volcano, playing with monkeys, and nearly being washed into the ocean at a seaside temple. But that's getting ahead of ourselves. Starting from the beginning:

Gloria and her parents arrived in Bali Friday afternoon, and headed straight to our villa in Ubud. Ubud is a town in central Bali, far removed from the party scene in the South. It is more known as a cultural hub with lots of arts & crafts and more traditional Balinese surroundings. Needless to say it is a very relaxing place and it definitely feels like you're in the jungle in Ubud. So Gloria and her parents spent some time getting situation in our Villa and checking out the surrounding area. 

The grounds of the villa. So serene

The pool at the villa. Ours was the one on the 2nd floor.

It even features a spitting frog, because it's not a proper villa pool without one.

I arrived late on Friday night, around midnight (flew in after work, then a 2 hour drive to Ubud). This is where things got interesting. We had scheduled sunrise a hike up Mt. Batur for Saturday morning, and by Saturday morning I mean leaving the Villa at 2 AM. So I slept for about an hour, then got up and headed out for our hike. Now, when we booked this hike we tried to make sure we weren't getting into anything that would be too difficult for Gloria's parents. Based on web sites that described the hike as "not really difficult, even for those who aren't fit" and "not a difficult climb at all", we assumed it would be a nice easy hike. We were wrong. This climb was no joke.  It was around 500 meters (~1,500 ft), quite steep in parts, with a lot of jagged volcanic rocks. We were all a bit surprised at the difficulty of the climb, no one more than Gloria's dad. He was none too pleased with us and every few steps he could be heard muttering under his breath (all in Chinese of course). Gloria translated for me and it went something like this:

Walk for 20 minutes
"This is too hard"

10 steps

"You told me this would be easy"

20 steps

"You tricked me into doing this"

20 steps

"Why did you bring me here?"

30 steps

"Let's take a break"

Of course, we all kept encouraging him and thanks to his own personal guide, he was able to make it to the top!

About a quarter of the way up with our guide

Though we didn't reach the peak before the sunrise, we still got some fantastic views as the sun came up.

About 3/4 of the way up, as the sun rises.

Despite the initial "grumpy pants-ness" Gloria's dad did make it all the way to the top, at which point he proclaimed that he had "conquered" the volcano. Conquered indeed.

Our conquering hero

All joking aside, both my in-laws blew us away - they climbed a mountain for 3 hours!  We were most super impressed and especially proud of my father-in-law who is not one for exercise. Once we got past about the halfway point, he hunkered down and powered through, and in the end it was a great triumph.

Gloria and I reached the top a few minutes later, and the views were spectacular.

Almost there...

Made it!

Gloria's parents with our illustrious guides

Top of the world!

Posing in front of the crater. You can see the steam rising out of it behind them.

Natural hand warmers (steam vent)

Overall view of the top of the volcano. Our guides made breakfast in the building. 

One interesting thing about the mountain is that it is considered a holy site by some of the local people, and they come and leave offerings. There are even some cave temples as well.

An offering on the volcano.

One of the cave temples

Panorama from the top. The dark ground on the right is the lava field from the last major eruption (1970's) 

Time to head down

Look how proud he is! Mt. Batur is in the background.

After the volcano climb, we headed home for a much needed nap, and then over to the Monkey Forest Sanctuary in Ubud. We had heard that the monkeys would be quite mischievous and to be mindful of any loose articles such as sunglasses, hats, etc. If we had any doubts of what we were in for, we got a crash course when before we even entered the sanctuary two monkeys jumped down into the middle of the road and had some, uh, special monkey time. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera out yet, so no pictures. You'll just have to take my word for it that it was pretty hilarious.

Once inside the sanctuary, the monkeys are everywhere. Running all over, eating fruit, occasionally fighting. It's pretty crazy and a lot of fun.

Monkeys everywhere!

ERMAGERD BERNERNERS!!!!!!!!

Notice the baby hanging on tight. Pretty amazing to see.

The monkeys will come up and take food right from your hand if you let them. We started with a slightly more cautious approach of setting food out for them.

Look monkey, the food is right there! 

Monkey didn't want the food. Gloria is not impressed.

Now Gloria is sad.

 After putting out some food for them, Gloria decided to follow the lead of our driver and have the monkey take the food from here hand. Let's see how that played out:

Here monkey, I have some food for you.

Monkey is intrigued...

...and takes a closer look

But wait, what is that?

Monkey starts to back away.

Monkey doesn't want that!

What the hell? What is this bullshit?

Seriously.

Look at the shocked look on the monkey's face. He is righteously pissed.

How can you not crack up at that face?

Since Gloria was apparently trying to feed them some funky fruit, the monkeys had to take things into their own hands.

Little guy just hanging out when....

...momma hears something from above and grabs baby to protect it

What are you looking at, human?

Ugh, being a monkey is soooo hard

Monkey security

Tastes like baby!

About midway through the sanctuary there is a feeding area with a small water bath/pond in the center. Workers throw lots of fruits in the water and the monkeys come grab it.

Everybody gets some food until the alpha monkey comes along. It goes something like this:

Alpha Monkey: "I'm the alpha, get out of my way"
Other monkeys: "Aww man, now we don't get to eat"
Rebellious Monkeys: "Screw that man, I'm getting me some fruit"

And then another big shot monkey would be up in their face about it, a fight breaks out, and the old monkey off to the side watching it all is like "the dude abides". It's nature.

Monkey fight!

What are you so upset about? Chill dudes.

There are also a couple of cool, Indiana Jones looking temples in the sanctuary.

Whew, all them monkeys worked up quite an appetite for us. So we headed out to a delicious dinner at a restaurant called Mosaic. We highly recommend it if you're ever in Ubud. Really good food.

Our pre-dinner snack

Cool wall in the restaurant

After that whirlwind of a Saturday, we started Sunday off with a nice swim in the pool, and then headed out to Tanah Lot. Hat tip to my friend Dave Skaar for the recommendation. Tanah Lot is a Balinese temple build on a rock just off the coast of mainland Bali. During low tide, you can walk all the way out to it, but during high tide it's pretty much inaccessible. It's pretty spectacular and definitely worth a visit.

Panorama showing Tanah Lot during high(ish) tide

I took this photo standing in the water as the waves washed in. Yeah, got a little soaked. Worth it. 

In the area around Tanah Lot there are also a couple other temples and areas for offerings. A truly beautiful place.

This temple on the outcropping over the water is really cool

Life is sooo hard

An offering at the temple

Alas it was time to leave Tanah Lot and head for the airport. But first, a pit stop for some roadside corn:

There are lots of people cooking food along the road just like this guy

Mmm corn

Nom nom nom 

A little further down the road we found some durian. For those that aren't familiar with it, durian is a tropical fruit that smells like, well, it's foul. Utterly foul. But some people love it, Gloria's parents included. It's super cheap SE Asia and very fresh compared to the US stock, so they took every opportunity they had during their trip to have some.

Enjoying some durien with the purveyor of the roadside stand

Our last stop was along side the road for a quick lesson for me. I casually mentioned that I've never really seen what rice looks like when it's growing, so of course we pulled over and Gloria's mom picked some and educated me. The more you know....

And with that, the Lee's sent me back to Jakarta while they spent the next 4 days in Jimbaran to lounge in style. She'll fill you in on that in the next bloggity blog post.

Until then, Monkey out!