Monkeys' forest

Let's be very clear: this is not The Monkey Forest, this is The Monkeys' Forest.  They own it, and they mean it!  They will let you visit, if you bring bananas.  So I thought I was being al smarty-pants by buying my own bunch of bananas in town for about one tenth of the price as what they women sell them for in the forest.  So we get out of the cab and within about 12 seconds, a large male macaque comes out of nowhere and grabs the bag with the bananas and runs up a tree.  And sits there looking at me eating the bananas one by one.  I called him names, but it didn't help at all.

 

So we carried on.. and bought expensive bananas inside the forest. And had a great time looking around and watching the monkeys--especially the babies

 

snake eating monkey

love these babies and their mohawks!

Bali!

We had some lovely days on Bali, starting in Sanur at the beach and ending in Ubud. 

 

For our day on the beach, we enjoyed the beach and the pool, and Reuben had his first experience with reflexology.  He liked it too (even though he almost screamed out loud!) J

 

When in Ubud, we spent hours at the ARMA museum again, just soaking in all of the paintings.. with our friend Cempaka.  All of these artists in bliss!!

And of course we did our usual touring around town, shopping and eating.. with a stop at Michele's crepes and jam.  It was fast, but fun!

And, in the airport.. durian M&Ms???

Prambanan

Prambanan is "a 9th-century Hindu temple compound in Central Java, Indonesia, dedicated to the Trimurti, the expression of God as the Creator (Brahma), the Preserver (Vishnu) and the Destroyer (Shiva). The temple compound, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is the largest Hindu temple site in Indonesia, and one of the biggest in Southeast Asia. It is characterized by its tall and pointed architecture, typical of Hindu temple architecture, and by the towering 47-metre-high (154 ft) central building inside a large complex of individual temples.^" (from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prambanan)

 

 

It's fantastic!!  Very hot and sunny, but gorgeous and lots to look at.  We were impressed that the kids knew the Ramayana by heart.. they took us through the friezes (with Jaffa in the lead) and told the whole story.  Our guide was impressed too!

LOVE these lotuses!  I need one for my yard :)

And--of course--we had our Lady Gaga moment!

(Can you find Jaffa and Eben?)

 

Monggo chocolate

Indonesia is one of the world's top chocolate producers, so no surprise that there are good chocolatiers there.  We knew Monggo Chocolate from Jakarta, where there is a great shop.  So, we asked two gentlemen with bicycle taxis to take us to Monggo.  First they took us to another big chocolate shop, but we insisted and so we wove back and forth through the small neighborhood streets until we found it.  It was lovely!  The factory wasn’t working as it was Sunday, but the shop was open with some very smiley girls to help us out.  The kids wolfed down the free samples, and then we bought a bunch.  YUM!

 

An then you see an acorn

We decided to take a nice long walk through Yoyga, and on our way we saw two interesting things: the squirrel from the Ice Age movies, and a somewhat peaceful but high-spirited labor demonstration in the middle of town.  The squirrel was more fun.

But let's not forget the ladies we bumped into on the pedestrian bridge.  In a flash of cultural assimilation, I asked them to take a picture with us :)  Looks like they were getting ready for a fun night!

more Buddhism

From Borobudur, we took a look at a couple more Buddhist temples and then a monastery.  There is a fabulous mixture of Hindu and Buddhist culture in Java, and it was fantastic being able to see so much in Yogyakarta.  The monastery was wide open to the public, so we explored.

 

 

Borobudur sunrise

Seeing a clear gorgeous sunrise from the top of Borobudur didn't work out so well because of the rain!  So sad.. but still really happy to be up there at dawn.  It's a beautiful, powerful, spiritual place.

 

Not all moments were happy moments however

But the weather cleared up and things got better