Monkey Business/Life's a Dream...

...and not the nightmare where all your teeth fall out. Also not the dream where you're monkey-barring under the Chesapeake Bay Bridge...okay so maybe not any dream I've ever had, but I needed a title, okay?

my first selfie with a waterfall this year :) 

After the elephants, I made it back in time to check out on time. I then headed over to the monkey forest, Ubud's big attraction. Before I even made it inside, there were monkeys everywhere! I was on the street and there were monkeys climbing all over trees and the toilets. Once I realized that that wasn't actually the monkey forest, I made my way inside. They were nice enough to hold my suitcase at the admission ticketing for me so I didn't have to carry it.

monkey picking bugs off other monkey

As soon as I walked in there was this monkey eating a coconut. I started taking pictures of it when another monkey made a run for them. I thought they were going to fight over the coconut or the new monkey was going to steal it, so I got my camera ready and started clicking, but they were instead doing inappropriate monkey business (ooo that would've also been a good title...Monkey Business. ah, oh well, update: I agree it's a great name but I like Life's a Dream as well so guess what it's gonna be a shared title for one post because it's my blog and I can do what I want so deal with it), which I did get a picture of but for the privacy of the monkeys and as to not go against any monkey porn laws, I will not be posting it.
I then made my way around the park. On my way to the cemetery, I saw some monkeys actually picking bugs off of each other! How nice. Pictured above.
I also saw a bunch of monkeys eating various fruits and chillin on the graves (which is kinda rude but they're monkeys so maybe they don't know or maybe they're just rude lol)
I was wandering around thinking about how Dani and Marina got super cute pictures of the monkeys playing with their hair and such, when this guy approaches me and asks if I want the monkeys to sit on my shoulder. Uh, YEAH! So he took me to where the little monkeys were because they're less aggressive and will be more photogenic. At first we offer bananas, but they don't seem to want that so we give them leeches, which they gladly take. It was all fine, well, and good until the leeche was dripping all over me and made me all sticky, but it's okay because now I have cute monkey pictures.

So after we hung out with the little monkeys we went back to where all the tourists were, with the big monkeys. The guy had saved one more fruit for a big one, so we gave it to one who sat on my head like a hat to eat the fruit and was quickly gone again. 

 
Once there were no more fruits and I had my picture with the monkeys and paid the guy for my personal monkey encounter, I continued walking around the park. I still had like 6 hours until I had to go to the airport.

My adventures in the monkey forest lead me to temples and the waterfall you see in the opening picture. Honestly I think one of the monkeys left bugs on me instead of picking them off because I was awfully itchy. But I put my hair up and tried to ignore it. 

Soon I was back at the entrance for the monkey forest. Sneaking past the ticket booth (so I wouldn't have to get my suitcase yet) I headed up the road to find an ATM (for the taxi ride to the airport) and food. 

I ate at this restaurant near the ATM because I'm lazy. But they had Tropical Iced Tea and it was sooo good. I hadn't had tea my entire time here in New Zealand because they just don't have any. It's depressing because at home I live off sweet tea (I literally by 3-4 bottles every night from Night Hound, Loyola's nighttime dining on the West Side of campus). I only got one Tropical Iced Tea, but I finished it in like .2 seconds, so then I just asked for regular iced teas because they were like 15k cheaper, but the lady kept bringing me tropical teas even though she only charged me for regulars! (The tropical ones have fruit in them.)
So I'm not sure if I blogged about it or if I tweeted about it, so if I blogged about it, sorry but I'm gonna blog about it again. For my meal part I got a salmon sandwich because as part of my cruise deficiency I need hot tea (also very hard to find in New Zealand) and salmon as much as possible in my life to make up for the lack of sea days which contributes to the lack of high teas. So yeah that led to salmon sandwich for lunch. 

Then for dessert I got some local dessert which was literally just bananas and pineapples and ice cream in a bowl of rum. It was called some long fancy word that starts with a K tho. So there's that. 

After lunch I went back to collect my suitcase and just walked around Ubud. It was hilly and hot and exhausting and there's dead ends and it was not good. I just chilled on the steps of some store for a bit then I decided I would attempt a spa because I'd never been to a spa before and Bali is like full of spas. So then I made another two rounds of town looking for a spa that took credit cards and offered baths. Eventually, I found Sang Spa. 

It was nice. I would recommend it. 

So I got some mask massage thing, I honestly have no idea I just got it because it came with a bath at the end. While I was deciding what I wanted they brought me some cold green drink to drink. It was good but small. Then I got a full body massage followed by a full body covering of some exfoliate thing, idk. But then I was wrapped up like a burrito to sit for 15 minutes before I could take a bath. Normally I hate massages/am lowkey scared of them because they always leave me in a lot of pain and hurt but before this one they had some survey I had to fill out about my skin and the strength of the massage and stuff so I was sure to put super soft for the strength. Also I would just like to mention that the masseuse was the first person to ask me about my skin and if I was okay. It was nice to have someone care. 

So anyways after all that I finally got to take a bath! IN A PRINCESS BATH!!! YESSS!!! Literally dream come true. In my future house I will own a princess bath. It also had lots of flower petals in it which was fancy. I kinda messed with the plug on accident though so I quickly ran out of water. Oops. It was nice while it lasted. Oh also while I was in there I was served hot tea (to go with my salmon from earlier) and fruits. Passion fruit and a fruit that I originally thought was a tomato but have since decided it was a kumquat. 

Then after it was finished I didn't even have to look for a ride to the airport because they had a taxi service! I just had to wait for their guy to come pick me up and he took me to the airport. It was lovely.

Until next time,
xoxo,
Tasha