at Uluwatu. We've been to the temple before and knew what to expect re: monkeys behaving badly. Our driver warned us again to take off our glasses before going in. It's a real pain if you REALLY need them to see stuff, which I do. Even as we walked down the hill from the carpark we could hear the startled screams of victims drifting across the clifftops. I was halfway down when the brute started stalking me. I had my specs in one hand and a water bottle in the other. He went for the water bottle first, which I later realised was just a diversionary tactic. As I yanked the bottle out of his way the beast deftly swooped on my other hand, scratching my leg in the process. After ripping away the glasses the monkey bolted for the bushes. Never fear, though! A professional monkey-chaser bolted in after him. There was a struggle. Branches snapped. Twigs flew. The gentleman emerged relatively unscathed, waving my specs in triumph. "20,000," he said, which I though was fair enough, although my glasses were pretty mangled up. Moral: listen to your driver/guide/whoever.
This story has a sequel, of sorts. The specs that were destroyed were my good ones, with expensive graduated lenses. I had a spare pair back at the hotel but they're ones I have to take off to see things up close. We went to Poppies for dinner the following evening (where I happily consumed the very last nip of Red Label in the place). I ordered a steak which was terrific but which I had enourmous amounts of trouble slicing into. I couldn't see what was going on so I called a waitress over and asked for a steak knife. She took the knife out of my hand, turned it over...and handed it back. I was holding it upside down, duh! That damned monkey has a lot to answer for, I tell you.