Monkey Bite Fever

Bali is a wonderful island, but not for the reasons that most people go there. We bypass the resort areas and go up into the highlands near the monkey forests, the volcanos, and the Kopi Luwak, to a town called Ubud. We only heard of this place because some of our friends are from Indonesia. Ubud is filled with foreigners too, but most of the foreigners here are staying for a few months, maybe a few years.

The monkey forest. Yes, they actually have a small forest about a 5 minute walk from our hotel that is filled with monkeys. Why do the monkeys stay here and generally don't go outside of the forest? I don't know, and no one can give me a clear answer on that. But they do have plenty of monkeys here.

My friend Dev and I wander in. Tickets are $2 each, and I buy bananas from a street vendor to feed the monkeys.

It's fun. It's thrilling. But there is a dark side to this forest, just like in the Wizard of Oz. These monkeys don't fly, but they do bite. My friend Dev and I are having a good time feeding the monkeys. One sits down next to him and he gives it a banana. The monkey motions for another banana. Dev pets the monkey on the head. The monkey reaches for a banana. Dev pulls the bananas farther away and says "No, no, no" to this monkey.

We find out later that Dev broke three cardinal rules for monkey interaction. Apparently the monkeys, like California, have a "three strikes and you're out" policy.

1. He pet the monkey
2. He looked directly at the monkey
3. He said No to the monkey

The monkey bit Dev on the forearm, about a 1" cut that lets blood come running out. Blood goes onto his arm, blood onto his shirt, blood onto his shorts. It isn't enough blood to cause real danger, but it is more than you would expect.

Dev is angry at the monkey. Wouldn't you be too? But the first order of business is to get medical attention. Luckily they have a clinic about 20 yards from the entrance to the forest. A nurse is on staff here, a nurse both kind and professional. They've seen this before, about five times each day. She stops the bleeding, sterilizes the wound, injects lidocaine as a numbing agent, and puts in a stitch. She inquires whether he's been vaccinated for tetanus recently, and since we're not sure she gives him a tetanus injection. She has antibiotics on hand and gives him a ten day supply of amoxicillin. She bandages the wound, gives him instructions for the days ahead, and has him sign a medical log book. She is so wonderful, both professional and honestly kind, that Dev asks her to marry him. Half jokingly, but maybe half seriously too. She looks at him, half humorously but maybe half seriously too. She asks him his age, and then she decides that the age difference is too great and he is too old for her.

Dev and I return to the monkey forest and spend about an hour there. We are more cautious, clearly, but Dev is too courageous to let a one inch monkey bite prevent him from seeing the wonders of the monkey forest.

We return to the hotel later and Dev's father wisely insists that we check into rabies vaccinations. There has apparently never been a case of anyone getting rabies from a monkey bite, but Dev's father insists that caution is better than probability. We ask around and find that there is a clinic about 20 minutes away that has rabies vaccine, and Dev goes there.

Could this monkey forest exist in the U.S.? Clearly not. Among the eight people that were on our trip, a variety of opinions existed:

• The monkey forest should be shut down
• They should have more prominent warnings and prevent locals from selling bananas at the entrance
• It's ok, it's Bali and not the U.S.
• Any monkeys that bite should be eliminated, either euthanized or castrated
• People should only be allowed to walk through with a guide

What do you think? Would you go in the monkey forest, and should they change it?


One last surprise for you: We caught the actual monkey bite on video.

Cat Poop Coffee

Kopi Luwak Cat Poop Coffee

Have you heard of Kopi Luwak? It is the most expensive coffee in the world. And yes, it is cat poop coffee.

It's not exactly a cat, it's a civet. And it's not the poop that I'm drinking. This particular species of civets likes to eat the raw coffee beans with the surrounding fleshy part of the seed. While the coffee bean is traveling through the civet, the civet digests away the fleshy part leaving only the coffee bean. The people gather the scattered coffee beans, they clean away the bad stuff, and then they clean and roast the coffee beans.

Why go to all this trouble for coffee beans? Why not just take the coffee beans from the tree? Apparently the digestive enzymes alter the coffee bean, modifying and deepening the flavor.

OK, that sounds gross. But if you knew how sausage was made you would think it was gross too.

How does it taste? It does have an interesting flavor. It's a little less bitter than normal coffee, but I still need sugar and cream with it. It's especially good with ginger and cream.

I'm buying some Kopi Luwak to bring home with me. Would you like to taste it when I return?

Duality

Hong Kong reminds me of duality. It has an official dual existence, one country two systems. More, though, it feels like a duality. British and Chinese melded together but separate, a close cousin to Blade Runner. And my purpose here also exposes a duality: freedom and adventure travel, but also escape from life and normal existence. It's a place to go to find a new start.

What dualities exist in your own life? Are you mother and lover, child and parent, business and personal? Do you have disjoint lives, the one at work and the one at home, or maybe the one you share with family and the one you share with friends? Do you sometimes feel alone even when surrounded by people?

Food in Hong Kong is a delight for the senses, more an adventure than a necessity. At dinner near the night market it's sloppy and dangerous but interesting. You can choose your crab or lobster from large plastic buckets filled with water and crustacians. Maybe it is my choices that make food an adventure?

I get dim sum the next day. I have to ask for hot chili oil, and then they bring me a tiny thimble of it and I have to ask for 3 more. This is not Szechuan.  Are they insulted by what I am doing to their food, as if I am poisoning their favorite child? But they are amused by my gusto for their creations. Food here is different than Beijing, as are the people. Food in Beijing seems designed to assault the senses, while here food is finely crafted with delicate flavors, The difference, maybe, between spicy buffalo wings and nouveau cuisine? The people here are different too. There are still rich and poor, but it lacks the obvious class divisions in Beijing. Beijing reminds me of the class divisions in feudal Europe after true Franks conquered Gaul, with a distinct ruling class and several lower classes under their sway. Or maybe the antebellum south? It leaves me wishing that the Cantonese had won the Chinese civil war. But maybe that's why they didn't? They seem focused on living and enjoying life, unlike their warlike brethren to the north.

What do you think the Mediterranean would be like if Germany had won World War II? The thought seems brutal to us, impossible even to ask. But Hitler was only a man. He would have died eventually, as Mao Zedong did, and German rule would have softened eventually.

 

These precocious musings must yield to further adventure. I only have 24 hours left in Hong Kong. I visit several shopping areas, then meet up with an indirect friend who is also in HK. Her plan is to go to Victoria Peak right away, but I convince her that she has enough time and more adventure by joining me to a Aberdeen fishing village and a floating restaurant for lunch. We separate and then I go to another part of the island that has a local market, and finally make my way to Victoria Peak for dinner.