22nd December 2017
Today was supposed to be a relaxed day as we started off with Balinese full body massage after breakfast. Our muscles really needed this massage with acupressure especially our legs and thighs – we are climbing up and down so many steps at this resort! After enjoying some herbal tea at the pool area, we left for our walk down to Ubud through the Monkey Forest.
We had a simple map with the directions to get through the Monkey Forest but we still had to ask our way – all the time we were told that the pathway was straight on…….. Anyway we did end up in the forest but all alone except for the monkeys in the high trees. At one point we saw and heard some people so we climbed up through the vegetation to another pathway and we were in the middle of the Monkey Forest Park. Here there were neat pathways and different types of signs explaining among other things, not to look the monkeys in the eyes – that sentence stuck into my mind ( thinking back to the incident at the Rotterdam Zoo where a lady was attacked by a gorilla who jumped over the moat as she used to go often and just sit and stare at him!)
It was fun watching these monkeys at play – there are some 100 monkeys around and the villagers look after the park as this is a holy area for them.
Finally we made our way to Ubud Palace where there was a marriage ceremony in progress – of course we weren’t invited but we did manage to get a glimpse through one of the gates – the women again were dressed in their traditional clothes and their makeup was perfect. The guests were being transported from the central parking to the palace by means of golf buggies and we learnt that depending which caste the guest belonged to, then the invitation would be for a specific day out of the 3 day celebration.
Today we did manage to exceed our goal of 10.000 steps per day but by the time we got back to our hotel by taxi, we were quite exhausted to climb down the stairs for a quick swim and a cocktail – but we did!
