Monkeying around in Ubud's Monkey Forest

You have to visit Ubud's Monkey Forest while you're in Bali. Everyone else does after all. It's got all kinds of spiritual significance, and it's rather beautiful, but for a lot of the visitors, it seems to be only about the monkeys.

No matter that they're nasty, dangerous, unfriendly things that bite and probably have rabies. No matter that the clearly posted rules tell you to avoid even eye contact with them, let alone contact or attempts to feed them. Half the visitors seem determined to do the very opposite!

I followed the rules, but I was amazed to see almost everyone else ignoring them. One (Chinese) tourist waved bananas at one, and successfully tempted it onto his shoulder to pose for a photo. The local lady who had somehow been allowed to sell him the banana leapt up, confiscated it, and screamed at him about his stupidity.

I came across a young European man who was cradling a baby monkey in his lap, stroking it like it was a cuddly little pussycat. The crotchety old man in me took over, and I strode over to him."Have you heard of rabies?" I asked him. He looked confused. "If it bites you, you will die" I told him bluntly. It's not quite true. There's only about a 50% chance.

Most of the monkey-watchers took no notice of the colourful human ceremony going on in the forest. The gamelan band was playing, speeches were being made, lots of food had been brought in for the feast. It was being translated into English, and I gather it was a big once-every-210-days ceremony marking particularly propitious times for cremations. The dukuns (holy men) look after all the relevant calculations. Cremations are joyous occasions, allowing the spirits of the temporarily buried deceased to get on with their reincarnations.

Some of us noticed.

India's dog days numbered

Stray dogs are everywhere in India. They serve some purpose, traditionally, as scavengers and as guard dogs, but they can be a nuisance too, and they can spread rabies. Every now and again cities launch programmes to eradicate them, generally using inhumane methods.

I met a very interesting and personable chap in Trivandrum, who told me passionately about his work for the Humane Society International / India , whereby he and his team are eradicating dogs there humanely, by sterilising them, and at the same time educating the populace about not being afraid of them, and treating them better.

He was a vet by training, and hailed from Kashmir. (You start to wonder how many people are left in Kashmir - so many do you bump into in other parts of India.) His parents had been trying to lure him back there with talk of good safe jobs. He'd even been offered Australian residence, and knew he'd earn vastly more there if he took it up. But no, his passion was to travel India doing this sort of project, and his life was just fine as it was.