Darwin was right – The apes taught us everything!

  Check out the monkey having a good long swig from the can of beer! This photo was taken in one of the monkey forests at Sanjur. There were lots of them around but having been warned that they are the absolute in pick-pocketing, not to mention the rabies epidemic on Bali, I kept my distance. Naturally, M had them climbing up his legs and the guide automatically assumed that I was a scaredy-cat girlie! I informed him that I wasn’t scared of monkeys just cautious. He smiled in the most patronising way, hmmmmm.

Once you have wandered through the gardens and admired all the temples and monkeys the only way to exit is through the usual market of stalls, selling all sorts of “stuff”. Tee-shirts with “I love Bali” emblazoned on the front, bags with “I love Bali” and of course sarongs after sarongs.  I don’t like shopping – never have – so it was easy to just keep walking and smiling “no thank you”.

We then went on to Goa Gajah, the elephant cave. At the entrance M was asked to wear a sarong, even though he had below the knee shorts on. Apparently my trousers were appropriate to wear at this temple. Once M was wearing the sarong we started down the steps. There seems to be a multitude of steps wherever you go in Bali. I suddenly noticed that a little Balinese man had attached himself to us and was mumbling away and pointing to various trees etc. So, how dumb can you be, it took me five minutes before I realised that he had become “our official guide” and that he would expect a tip at the end.

 

We couldn’t hear what he was saying most of the time and once I had seen that all the fingernails on his left hand were so long that they curled towards the palm of his hand – a lot – I couldn’t concentrate on what he was saying anyway! So after we had been in the sacred cave we thanked him and tipped him 20,000 rupiahs (about $2.50) and he happily wandered off to catch the next lot of tourists! And wouldn’t you know it, despite all my eye movement and silent body language at M to check out the fingernails – he never noticed! Men!

Our guide for the day, Uncle Rojan then took us off for a trip to Amed, where the salt is distilled from the sea – but that’s another post.

J