Ubud is higher in elevation than the coastal town we stayed at our first two nights in Bali and is mercifully a bit cooler. Breakfast is outside by the pool and the resident giant bat patiently hangs in the tree next to the tables hoping for a snack. This thing is the size of your average cat and pretty cute. 
After breakfast, we decided to head to the sacred monkey forest sanctuary, which is just a park with a river, a temple and lots of balinese macaques. The macaques are cute from afar but to quote Lonely Planet, “the greedy Balinese macaques are nothing like the innocent-looking doe-eyed monkeys shown the the brochure. Jeff got into a nastly little scuffle with a big male with massive fangs and almost came off worse for the encounter. Jeff was taking pictures of a baby and set down his water, which the male wanted and came over to steal. When Jeff fended him off with a fake kick, the male bared his fangs and hissed at us. We ran.
Rabies risk aside, the rest of the sanctuary was beautiful. There's a big gorge and two guys were hand carving the art work on the bridge as we crossed. Amazing.After the sanctuary and a swim to revive us, we headed on a hike. This may seem like a good idea but it was like 10 kilometers in the beating sun and oppressive humidity. The rice terraces were beautiful shades of green and the heat stroke just added to the atmosphere.
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