Monkey Forest

This afternoon I toured the Monkey Forest in Ibud. As I entered the forest dozens of friendly monkeys run to greet me. They are adorable and of course I open my backpack to get my camera. A young monkey thinks I might have food in my pack and jumps on my back. I scream which only gets the monkey more interested. He climbs on my head and peeks around at my face. Another visitor tries to calm me down and offers to take my picture. Proof will follow when I can post some pics. The forest is filled with monkeys, playing, schutping, swinging from trees and begging bananas. There is a beautiful temple with a ceremony in process. It is the Monkey Temple and all the statues depict monkeys. While in the temple and older monkey gets pisses that I am meditating in his space and he snarls at me and makes bad faces- again I scream and the temple attendant scolds him and he snarls again and leaves. I am far from home and this is a very usual experience

I have moved into a Homestay. It's $10 a night and beautiful. I have a nice room with a balcony over looking a stunning garden. I am looking forward to doing nothing. All but one of my new retreat friends have gone home. It feels strange to again say good bye to everyone and stay one. This is an amazing time of my life and I feel unbelievably lucky to have this time.

Very early this AM Allison and Rayna and I climbed the Batur volcano and then soaked in a beautiful hot springs by a lake, Toya Bringkah then had breakfast in Kintamani. Loving my Bali experience and enjoying my sabbatical.