As you may or may not know, I have been so graciously blessed on my journeys with some of the most ridiculous travel failures known to man.  Seriously.  During my travels in Bali, I fell in love with the hundreds of wild monkeys I encountered on my hikes of Mount Batur and Mount Agung.  Side note:  I was lucky enough to be able to hike Mount Agung immediately prior to its 2017 eruption.  Thankfully, I had the opportunity to experience this literally within days of authorities evacuating the premises and closing the area off completely from hiking.

My interactions and encounters with these cute, furry, little creatures started off quite friendly.  We shared bananas, some laughs, a photo op or two, really the macaque monkeys of Bali and I hit it off well.  Or so I thought.

Friends and family at home often joke how I am some pet psychic or animal whisperer and I’d have to agree, I do have “a way” with animals.  Animals naturally gravitate towards me no matter what the species or setting.  So it’s no surprise that day after day, the wild monkeys in Bali, entirely uninvited, literally launched at my shoulders and joined me on my treks.  

I frolicked around and interacted with these creatures for days.  And then it happened.  I came across a large bag of fried pork rinds and they are not a snack I typically prefer.  Yet, because of my constant interactions with the macaque monkeys, I decided to hold onto the bag and offer the chips as a treat during our next rendezvous.  Apparently, this was my first mistake, thinking these creatures and I understood each other and were friends.

I was kneeled down spending time with this sweet, gentle, innocent, quickly turned psychopath monkey feeding it pork rinds and enjoying the moment with the cute fella.  We were literally holding hands and I was amazed at how human-like he was.  And then, out of nowhere, he took his little human-like hand, grabbed mine, and viciously bit it! 

Although most say a bite from a macaque can be pretty painful, (it’s not too bad in my opinion) the other, more important issue to consider is the possibility of rabies.  The disease is pretty prevalent in Bali and a bite from an infected animal can be deadly.

I’ll leave you with a little cliffhanger and continue the full story at a later date, but to answer the most immediate questions, no, I, unfortunately, didn’t catch the attack on camera, but I did get some before shots of my little “frenemy” when I thought we were cool.  And no, I did not end up with rabies or any other type of horrific disease (thankfully).  Lastly, I’m understandably no longer the naive monkey-loving person I once was.