An Indian traveller has shared a cautionary tale about her experience in Bali, warning visitors about aggressive monkeys at one of the island’s most famous temples. In a post shared on the social media platform X, Priti Jain said that aggressive monkeys snatched her expensive sunglasses while she was visiting Uluwatu Temple.
The Uluwatu Temple is as famous for the hundreds of long-tailed macaques that live on its premises as for its dramatic cliffside location. The monkeys are known to steal items like phones, sunglasses and jewellery from tourists. Jain, however, did not think she would end up becoming their victim.
Monkey menace in Bali
“Monkeys in Bali, especially at Uluwatu Temple are SCARY and an absolute MENACE. They are constantly hunting to snatch your phones and sunglasses,” the Indian tourist said in her X post.
Priti Jain, who is a chartered accountant, said she did not expect to have her sunglasses snatched while visiting the Hindu temple.
“I had seen all those videos… did not think I myself will become the victim until it actually happened,” she said.
For her trip to Bali, Jain had bought a new pair of power sunglasses. This was her first time wearing the sunglasses, and she lost them within seconds. She shared videos that show a monkey sitting coolly with her sunglasses. “Yaar this is not done,” Jain was heard saying ruefully in one clip.
Silver lining to very bad day
In her post, the Indian woman explained that she has very high power and would have had trouble seeing things, if not for the spare pair she was carrying.
Even so, it was a very bad day for her in Bali, and she rued her decision to visit the temple.
“I have a very high power (-4) and thankfully I had a spare or I would be roaming around almost blind. Even after I wore my normal sunglasses, still managed to escape another monkey attack. Just a very, very bad day for me,” she wrote on X.
Jain did, however, manage to find a silver lining in the whole fiasco — she is grateful that she wasn’t wearing Prada sunglasses.
“The ONLY thing that kept me sane that day was that I wasn't wearing my Prada sunglasses, and the fact that they didn’t take my phone, or else I would have genuinely broken down. It would have been a very, very expensive heartbreak,” she said.
A warning to tourists
Jain ended her post by warning tourists to be “very careful” when visiting Uluwatu Temple. “Honest take: be VERY careful here or just skip it. Not worth the stress,” she said, adding that the monkeys were even targeting young children.
“For sunset, there are much better places in Uluwatu. I was chilling at Malini Cafe, and I really don’t know why I insisted my husband head to Uluwatu Temple, maybe because I wanted to see the Kecak dance, but that was also just about okay, nothing extraordinary,” she advised.