Uluwatu Temple BALI and The Monkey Thieves
3 min readUluwatu Temple BALI and The Monkey Thieves
On our first trip to Bali a few years ago, we didn’t have the luxury of time to visit the iconic Uluwatu Temple. Hence, during our honeymoon to Bali, we decided to visit the temple. It is one of the most beautiful temples in Bali and it is featured in many magazines, postcards and TV shows.
(The entrance of the Uluwatu Temple)
To go to Uluwatu, we travel south from Kuta for the infamous Uluwatu temple on our private minivan. Due to the traffic jam, we took 40 min to reach the Uluwatu temple. Traffic jam is no joke in Bali and that’s why we chose to stay near the airport during our last day of our stay.
At Uluwatu Temple, there are traditional ceremonies that took place but we missed that ceremony during our visit. Uluwatu temple is famous for its scenery and also notorious for its monkey thieves. It is not that branded these monkeys as thieves but most of the tour guides.
(Monkey near the entrance of the temple, most of them usually hang out near the entrance and the pathway)
The monkeys are trained to steal things and after you lost the items there will be someone who will help to retrieve it back for a small sum of money.
We were advised to take off little things like spectacles, wallets, handbags or such as there are a lot of wild monkeys in Uluwatu temple. It is better to be safe than sorry so I took off my spectacles.
(This monkey had been watching us for a long time and ready to attack us when we were off guard.)
One classic example of the Monkey thief at Uluwatu Temple.
My friend lost her Gucci spectacles at the same temple on the hands of this monkey thieves. Just minutes after her loss, someone came to her and told her that he could retrieve back her spectacles at “a price”. These monkeys were trained to steal small items like this. We were not sure why the police didn’t catch such syndicates but the tour guides had already warned us.
(Absolutely stunned by the view here. We stopped here and closed our eyes and listened to the waves of the sea and enjoyed the breeze of the wind. Should we ask for more?)
The temple is just a short distance from the parking area. It was probably around a good five minute walk. Along the pathway, the monkeys were all ready to look for loose small items on ourselves. I made sure my camera was tied to my hands.
(Look at the height of the cliff and how amazing this place is. Sorry, over usage of the word “amazing”)
Uluwatu Temple as explained by our tour guide.
Uluwatu temple was best to view it from far. To be precise, the view from the opposite cliff of the temple was excellent. It was just another 10 min walk from the top of the temple along the path on the cliff side.
(This was the scenery of the sea and I was totally calmed down by the scenery, this is the honeymoon everyone is looking for!)
We roughly spent half an hour to 45 minutes at Uluwatu temple. If we managed to catch the traditional ceremony, we would spend additional half an hour or more. Luck was not on our side as the sky was very gloomy. We could have taken more beautiful shots if the sky was blue.
This was how far we walked away from the temple, it didn’t take long. Probably a good 15 minutes walk?
Look down from the cliff you will stunning formation of rock like these.
Monkey thieves of not, we enjoyed the scenery of this beautiful temple and cliff. Sadly we missed the ceremony. Many people said this place is overrated but with the pictures we took, do you think so?
