There is a monkey on our roof, and I am not entirely sure what to do about it. 

It is not that I am surprised by this.  After all, we live on Monkey Forest Road.  And that is not just some sort of nice-sounding street name.  No, there is actually a wild monkey sanctuary just a two-minute walk down the hill from our house.  Hundreds of tourists stop by the forest to visit the monkeys every day, tossing them bananas and snapping their photos.  The monkeys seem to be fairly well fed down there.

But I guess, every once in a while, the monkeys get bored and wander around the neighborhood.  At first, we saw a few monkeys hanging out on the security fence that surounds our house.  But within two days, they had breached our wall.  We were swimming in the pool when we noticed the monkeys rummaging in the small temple on our property.  Every morning, the owner sends someone to the house to place traditional Balinese offerings in the temple, which in turn, will hopefully provide good luck and protection on the house.  The small offerings consist of some brightly colored flowers, some rice, and a cracker or two, placed in a small palm-woven basket.

The monkeys definitely liked the crackers.  Arabella ran over, clearly interested in befriending our neighbors.  It appeared, for a moment, that she was headed over to give the monkey a hug.  Which I guess is to be expected when a kid grows up reading books and watching movies filled with friendly monkey's like Curious George and Dora's friend Boots.  But you don't really want your three-year-old hugging wild monkeys.

I tried to scare of the encroaching monkey.  I wasn't really sure what to do, so I growled as loud as I could, hoping to scare off the monkey.  In turn, the monkey turned, squared its shoulders, stared me down, and ferociously growled back -- showing off its small, sharp, pointy teeth.  The monkey began to charge.  This was not encouraging.  So we retreated into our house, closed the doors, and waited for the monkeys to finish their snacks.  Monkeys: 1, MacFish Family: 0.

And so today, I think, there is not much I can do about the monkey on the roof.  He seems pretty content with just hanging out there.  Perhaps he also enjoys the views of the nearby volcanos.  Our perhaps, he just needed to take a break from all the tourists who are always barging into his home.

Oh well, I guess we will have to find a way to live together.