During our holiday in Bali, one thing we were quite excited to visit was Pura Luhur Ulu Watu. This is a very important temple in a gorgeous location, perched atop cliffs on the edge of the ocean. The temple itself was lovely, with a lot of intricate carvings. The view from the temple was even better as the clear blue waves crashed on the rocks below. Wonderful!

Sun shining over the ocean

Lovely view

fun carvings

good friends and good views

Ulu Watu Jelfie!

However, the real attraction is not the temple, but the monkeys that live along the coast near the temple. We had been forewarned- the monkeys are mean! They will steal anything.

As we walked along the path we saw monkeys guzzling juice, stealing flip flops off a tourist’s foot, drinking (and dumping out) stolen hand sanitizer, and viciously eating stolen sunglasses.

Guzzling juice

Eating sunglasses

Chugging hand sanitizer

Realizing (correctly) that hand sanitizer is probably not good for eating and instead dumps it out

We kept our hands on our valuables and stayed away from most of the monkeys. And, we admit it, laughed a little bit at the people silly enough not to heed the warnings and get things stolen! Ha!

After an enjoyable time observing the monkeys, we breathed a sigh of relief, and headed back down the path towards the temple, and our car ride home. Oops. Far too soon.

As we were walking back, we started to relax. Izaak put his sunglasses back on his head. Mistake. From out of nowhere (literally, he somehow came from below us, over the edge of the cliff), a monkey appeared and grabbed Izaak’s sunglasses before Eric (who was slightly behind and witnessed the whole theft) could even issue a call of alarm!

We then had the distinct pleasure of watching the monkey examine and then promptly gnaw on the sunglasses, bending the frame irreparably. Now, we have to admit, this was kind of funny, especially as Izaak informed us that the sunglasses were not expensive and relatively easily replaceable. We watched and giggled for awhile, and then left, leaving the sunglasses for lost.

Good bye sunglasses

Izaak posing with the thieving monkey

However, a few minutes later, one the guards (there seemed to be a plethora of guards along the path for exactly this reason), chased after us and handed Izaak his crumpled and tooth-marked glasses. We never did figure out how the guard got them from the monkey!

Izaak posing with his returned but broken sunglasses

So, while we lost a perfectly good pair of sunglasses, we gained an even better story!