temple « WhereamIgoingto

Bali, Indonesia…Ubud has an aura…the spirituality and respect for nature is evident everywhere you go here! Animals feature predominantly in Hindu beliefs and statues abound of every kind of animal…

I love Monkeys! The Balinese do too and there is a Monkey Temple inside Ubud’s famous Monkey Forest! I had to visit these mischievous cuties in their habitat…

The Monkey Forest is swarming with a huge population of monkeys and they are smart enough to know that visitors come bearing gifts…BANANAS!

They are relentless and will stop at nothing to get a banana…jumping on you, trying to steal your bag, go in your pocket, you name it…all in the name of scoring a tasty banana! You can’t outsmart these feisty animals!

I think they are too cute, others are scared to death! I had them crawling on me, jumping at me, hissing at me, and following me to get one of the bananas I kept in my bag! They really can jump like no body’s business! I almost got bit by playing too hard to get…

I am a Monkey in Chinese astrology and have always had a kinship to these animals and they never cease to fascinate me!

This place is their sanctuary and they get what they want! I was playing by the monkey’s rules today!

Bali, Indonesia…another day in this magical place! Today we wanted to see some of the traditions of the Balinese!

A ride through amazing terraced rice fields was picturesque…many of the fields were being harvested so they weren’t as lushly green as they are some other times! But they are still beautiful and seeing the vibrantly dressed ladies working the fields was a neat experience!

We arrived at the one of the most important temples in Bali…the water temple “Tirta Empul”

The sacred waters cleanse many ills! The spirituality was palpable and it was an incredible sight seeing all the locals filling the holy spring pool. One by one they submerged themselves under the spout after delivering their offering to the Gods!

Bali is home of deep Hindu traditions, a gentle and lovely people, and a serene sensibility. Luckily our driver supplied an array of batik sarongs for us to wear and made sure we were appropriately outfitted for this holy site! Ienjoyed wearing Balinese attire and taking part of these beautiful and moving traditions!