Most visitors like to Bali are intrigued by the wild monkeys that inhabit temples and parks. I prefer to keep my distance. Notorious thieves of reading glasses, hats, bags and water bottles, monkeys can become aggressive if provoked. Ubud’s monkeys of Monkey Forest and the entrance to the park are known to scratch people and are easily provoked. The monkeys of Pura Pulaki temple by the sea at Pemuteran in the north are also known to be aggressive. Advice regarding rabies and hepatitis is often ignored by tourists keen to have physical contact with monkeys.
Despite my ambivalent feelings about monkeys, I found myself at peace with a few fine creatures at the top of Padang-Padang beach, on the Bukit Peninsula. Deterred by the crowds descending through the cave to enter that tiny beach ( made famous unfortunately by the film Eat Pray Love), I chose to hang out with some gentle characters around the temple. I am sure they were posing for me as I sat about quietly with my camera. I had no food, no bag, no voice and little movement.
Padang-Padang Beach is best visited in the low season, that is, any time outside the months of July and August. Northern Bali, around Pemuteran, is still relatively quiet in these months, a five-hour drive from the teeming and touristed South.
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