One of my favorite parts of Ubud was walking around the Sacred Monkey Forest in Ubud.
The Sacred Monkey Forest is a conservation center in the city, but you wouldn’t know there was a bustling city center just steps away. The moment you step into the forest you’re transported back in time, the forest is home to three Hindu temples dating back to 1350, the architecture of these temples is incredible, so much detail and the preservation is amazing. Walking around and imagining what this forest was like when it was a bustling community center was very cool.
As a conservation center the monkeys have free reign of the place, they are extremely desensitized to the visitors, seeing about 10,000 tourists come through a month will do that I think.
There are stands throughout where you can buy bananas to feed them, I have 2 recommendations if you decide to do that (which I would, its a lot of fun!).
The first is wait until you get past the main temple area and there are fewer tourists around. The larger monkeys hang out in that area and can get very aggressive. I had one jump on my head within 15 seconds of me buying the bananas and he stole all of them from me before I even got a picture.
The second is accept the handlers help. I know it seems like it would be a lot more fun to give the bananas out in a more spontaneous way but it doesn’t work like that. The big ones will steal your bananas from either you or the littler monkeys you’re trying to feed.
The monkeys are definitely not all there is to see in the forest, along with the temples there is an ancient ravine with a sacred spring at the end of the path. It’s a beautiful little walk away from the main area down an incredible carved stone bridge.
Overall it’s definitely a really cool spot to make a stop during your visit to Ubud!
