Perhaps if the local monkey gods didn’t look so fearsome the local monkeys would have a more pleasant demeanor too.

Prior to my first visit to Bali I spent hours on-line planning my holiday. I decided to spend a few days in Kuta, which seemed to be Bali’s version of Waikiki – a touri ghetto designed to separate visitors from their wallets with just enough local flavor to qualify as a tropical getaway – and then a few in Ubud, which is billed as the island’s artistic soul, before heading north and the less touristed areas far from the glitter and clamor of Kuta. One of the hotels I considered for my Ubud segment of the trip was located next to the Monkey Forest; to get into town every morning you’d walk through the forest and commune with the monkeys.

Strolling through a forest filled with monkeys to start your day sounded appealing. Until I read more. And discovered how aggressive said monkeys were. Not unlike the touts back in Kuta, they preyed on visitors, swooping down from the trees to make off with any food or shiny things unsuspecting humans had with them. Huh. Getting attacked by monkeys every morning while in search of caffeine didn’t sound as appealing as it initially had. I passed. And passed on visiting the Monkey Forest while I was in Ubud too.

On my second visit to Bali, already knowing the lay of the land, I spent much less time in planning the trip. I had avoided most of the must-do touri outings the first time around and thought I should hit a few this time. The problem with Bali’s local sights that may interest touri is the islanders have turned them all into souvenir stands. But the word was Uluwatu, a cool Hindu temple perched atop a towering seaside cliff, was largely souvenir stand free. With visions of scenic postcard perfect photo ops waiting, I hired a car and headed for what is one of Bali’s more famous temples.

No one told me about the monkeys.

Awww, cute! Baby monkey! Now check out the stink eye being thrown by the one to the right. That’s the look you see when you are being sized up for dinner.

I’m used to visiting Buddhist temples in SE Asia. In Europe, I make a point to visit old churches and historic cathedrals too. Regardless of your religious beliefs and regardless of the religion, places of worship touch your soul. There is always a sense of serenity in churches and temples, there is a natural reverence that permeates structures built to honor a peoples’ god. You lose that sense of wonderment when upon entering there is a large pile of sticks with which to arm yourself. Serenity flies out the window when you have to be constantly on guard and ready to do battle with the local wildlife.

The temple’s monkey population line the walking paths around Uluwatu, all casting malevolent glances your way, all just waiting for you to lower your guard or to lower your stick. It is suggested to hammer the nearby foliage as you start down a new path, a warning to the monkeys lying in wait that you are armed and willing to use your weapon. When you do, they screech back in anger. And then sit where they were staring at you as you walk past with very real human-like emotion filling their eyes. If looks could kill . . .

I got a few good shots of the temple. I quickly learned taking monkey shots of those close to you was an unwise move; as soon as you raised the camera to your eye the monkeys would move in knowing you could not take a picture and hit them at the same time. I switched over to my telephoto lens, the one I use for monk hunting, and kept my distance instead.

Everything about this shot says serenity. And who said pictures don’t lie?

Pictures of monkeys always elicit the ‘awwwwwwwwww, how cute’ factor in humans. I allow friends browsing my photos to remain ignorant, no reason to correct their misconceptions. They respond to the fact that our fellow primates are our closest cousins. I neglect to remind them that also means they can have some of our worst traits.

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As tacky as they can be, catching one of the cultural dance performance in Bali is worth your time. If you spend your time partying instead, the shops in Kuta are filled with the more unusual dance masks. Add a bit of wind and they’ll put on their own performance for you.

Adding the ‘related posts’ links to my blog recently forced me to go through some of my older, original posts. Among those were the first batch of Bonus Shot postings, short little snippets of text added to highlight a photograph that I liked. I originally used that category to add a favorite shot that didn’t fit into a lengthier posts, or for a photograph that I liked too much to use it for nothing more than a visual graphic elsewhere. More recently I’ve been using it for a post with a half dozen or so pictures, additional shots of some place I visited which I already covered in a main post.

That works, and I’ll probably still use the Bonus Shot category for that purpose. But those original posts reminded me of the large number of shots I have, pictures I’m quite fond of, that will never fit into a post. Not unless I get so desperate as to start running posts about tropical flowers, for example. Still, I do have a lot of odd-ball photographs I’d enjoy sharing here so I’m going to start running shorter, photographic posts under that category again.

I take a lot of pictures when I travel. I enjoy the photographic opportunity as much as I do visiting new locales. That can be problematic when I’m with someone else; I can spend several hours at a wat, for example, immersed in lining up shots. Whomever I’m with is usually ready to go after a half hour. So it’s always nice to travel with a fellow amateur photographer. My friend Noom tolerates the inordinate amount of time I want to spend at specific places, but then he too enjoys taking pictures. Well, he enjoys handing me his camera and having me take a picture of him in front of wherever it is we are visiting. And he enjoys walking around with his pricey digital camera hanging from his hip so that everyone can see that he owns one. We all find our own brand of enjoyment out of any activity, photographical or not.

Noom does occasionally like to take a shot that he is not in. And he pays attention to what I’m shooting, it might pass muster and be worthy of him duplicating my efforts. More often his forehead scrunches up while he tries to figure out why in the hell I’m shooting something so stupid. I take a lot of those type of photographs. And a lot of them are the ones that will never really fit into a post here. Nonetheless, they are shots I enjoy. And they just provided me with an opportunity to use the word nonetheless.

For a while I’m going to run a pair of photographs in these posts. As I’ve been going through my old shots they seem to shuffle out that way. At some point, I need to get back to posting about Bali. For the time being, including for today’s post, I’ll just stick with some photographs from that little slice of tropical paradise. Hope you enjoy them as much as I have.

I’m often amazed at what the locals consider souvenir appropriate in SE Asia. The shops in Kuta take that oddness to an extreme. I haven’t the foggiest who would buy one of these helmets, much less who would wear one. But then Bali does get a lot of Aussies touri, so maybe they are onto something.

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