While on December holiday in Bali, ETA Ryan Ulrich decided to visit the Monkey Forest of Ubud, located in the central part of Bali. The forest is both the natural habitat and sanctuary of the Balinese long-tailed monkey (Macaca fascicularis). Ryan, having been in Indonesia for some time now, had yet to see any monkeys, and decided this would be a prime opportunity to achieve that goal.

While walking through the forest taking photos left and right, Ryan came upon a clearing where he witnessed two women struggling with a monkey. The monkey had decided it wanted a purse belonging to one of the women and tried to wrest it from her grasp, but the woman was resisting.

As he watched this exchange, Ryan was doing what any sane person of the 21st century would do—he was filming the event on his phone. However, as he watched, he saw that the woman and her friend were slowly losing the struggle with the monkey, so he decided to step in and intervene on their behalf.

Ryan distracted the monkey with loud noises and by waving his hands in the air. The monkey was diverted from his purse-snatching ways enough so that its grip on the purse loosened and the woman was able to yank it free from its clutches. The monkey didn’t like this turn of events and proceeded to chase Ryan around the clearing while trying to take a swipe at him. A few new arrivals were wondering what Ryan had done to antagonize the monkey, so Ryan explained the situation. That’s when the monkey decided to attack again and Ryan quickly left the clearing.

A few minutes later, while wandering the rest of the forest, the monkey appeared again and tried chase Ryan, but backed off when it approached another monkey group’s territory. From that point onward, Ryan stuck with a large group of people, hoping the angry monkey wouldn’t recognize him. Thankfully, he avoided another simian assault, and enjoyed the rest of his visit to the forest.

Ryan Ulrich is currently teaching at SMA Muhammadiyah 1 Gresik, East Java