Capturing the Moment

  We kept hearing about the monkey forest in Ubud, Indonesia. Apparently it is a temple complex where monkeys are safe and fed. It is about a ten minute walk from the city center of Ubud. I was a bit skeptical at first because of my encounters with these same species of monkeys, called crab-eating macaques, at another temple down south in Uluwatu. At that temple the macaques will jump on you and steal your sunglasses as well as picking your pockets. Sometimes they give the glasses back in exchange for food, other times they are lost to the Balinese monkey gods.   As usual my curiosity got the better of me so Heidi and I found ourselves paying the $3 entry fee to enter to the fabled monkey forest. Our instincts paid off as these monkeys have yet to learn the art of thievery and are just going about their own thing. Lots of adorable baby monkeys watched us with their little eyes as they clutched to their mothers. At one point a monkey gathering happened in the center circl...