The Sacred Monkey Forest of Padangtegal

A mother.

We took a walk to the Monkey Forest in Ubud - actually in the village of Padangtegal.

The forest is home to several temples and hundreds of long-tailed macaques.

The literature provided by the village says that there are currently 340 macaques divided among four distinct troops. The males migrate among troops, but the females remain for life so the monkeys are what sociologists call matrilineal.

The troops sometimes fight but usually keep to their own parts of the forest.

They eat mostly fruits and vegetables.

I bought some bananas and fed them to the monkeys, but I gave them away pretty quickly - otherwise, you end up with a monkey on your back, literally.

We strolled through the forest, deep and dark.

The temples in the forest are covered with moss, which makes them seem ancient and lost.