Punk monkey eating Croissant

Breakfast is a tranquil affair. I check up on messages, the family, the world and get a little distracted. From my right a punk looking monkey with a mohican is watching. I haven't spotted him but he has sized me up, looked at my ditsy status and decided I was a goer. While I was busy typing he jumped up grabbed a croissant and made off back to his ledge with a certain glint in his eye. I was amused and watched him munching on it. Cheekily he decided to come back for more at which point the hotel staff intervened and chased him off. Is that a crumb just visible on the side of his mouth?

They live in their social groups happily grooming and caring for one another. They are clever enough to take every opportunity that presents itself to them. They even have a special place named after them, the Monkey Forest near the city where they roam around quite happily and size up the tourists who gawp at them. Well I was fascinated, and wandered all around the forest, full of the tallest banyans with leanas everywhere and watched the monkeys interacting, lazing around and just being cheeky.

They are macaques- Macaca Fascicularis. Four moments stood out. The first was a male coming up to one of the statues and sucking at the some of the protruding parts - like a nipple - they must be getting some nutrient from them.

Further along I saw a mum jumping in and out of a ditch which was covered by a footpath. I watched for a bit and quickly realised she was playing hide and seek with her young one who was just the other side of the covered footpath. She would jump down, show herself and as soon as the young one saw her, she would jump out again. This went on happily for some time to the delight of the young one. Here is the mum having a cuddle with the baby.

Here she is playing hide and seek.

In the main Prajapati Temple there were statues of monkeys.A real one was sitting next to them and closing his eyes. It was time for a nap  and I loved the fact he was leaning against his stone cousins.

There are three fairly ancient temples in the Monkey Forest and people worship as well as stroll along and enjoy the rain forest. It is full of ancient carvings which are often mossy and green, but blend so well in the environment.

They are many troupes and they are quite territorial. They are hugely interactive with the tourists and some feed them bananas, others have them on their shoulder, but I just enjoyed watching them. As I was leaving there was a young male sitting in the path. He had a stone and a couple of seeds. He rolled the stone like a boy would roll marbles. He played with them and softened the seeds and occasionally popped them in his mouth. When he was shooed away by a cleaner he went back to collect his stone - marble and continued his play which was nothing short of a learned response. Just fascinating. I had watched them leap onto vertical tree trunks and climb to the top, do somersaults on the ground, groom one another carefully and have fun and games as well as cuddles with their young. I envied them that slightly mad free spirit so when I left the Forest and could not find a taxi I jumped onto the back of a Balinese motorbike and asked him to take me to the other side of town. I knew that was slightly mad and I was taking a bit of a risk but hell - why not. I have to say I was a little unnerved when he turned into some narrow back alley ways but actually it was a handy short cut which avoided the congestion of the main road. I felt I had meandered just like the monkeys.