Indonesia

Posted on: November 22, 2008 at 2:58PM

The ancient Uluwatu Temple is a spectacular site from which to view a picture perfect Balinese sunset. Upon entering the grounds, we were approached by locals offering to protect us, for a fee, from the monkeys populating the area. They were such cute little monkeys; how much trouble could they be, right? Wrong! In a split second, a monkey lunged, snatching my husband's glasses from his face, then scampered up a temple wall where he proceeded to break them apart! A local ransomed the remains of the spectacles with some food but by then, they were useless. Besides the tip for the ransom, we were forced to find an English speaking optician on our next stop in Tokyo, at a cost of almost $600. The $5 fee for "monkey protection" looks quite reasonable now. If you choose to brave the monkeys alone, take great care to secure anything that could attract a curious primate interested in glasses, earrings, cell phones or purses. Enjoy the sunset! And contemplate just how close a relative we may be to some very clever little monkeys... report a problem