Our Insiders Guide to Ubud & Pejeng

LUWAK COFFEE
This is a definite no-no. To satisfy global
demand of the world's most expensive coffee,
which is made from civet's poo, (it's a longer
story but that's the gist of it), most of today's
suppliers keep captured civets in cages and
feed them almost exclusively on coffee
cherries.
Enduring appalling living conditions and
unhealthy diets, these nocturnal solitary
omnivores suffer from mental distress and
succumb to illness and death.
The grim luwak plantations are not confined
to Indonesia but they are plentiful on Bali.
Please don't support them - apparently the
coffee doesn't even taste very good!
THE MONKEY FOREST
MONKEYFORESTUBUD.COM
The Monkey Forest should actually not be
missed - it is unique, beautiful and full of
magnificent photo opportunities...the only
problem is the monkeys!
They are very cute but, through years of being
fed bananas by tourists (sold at the entrance),
they have become quite aggressive and
sometimes bite (which involves a painful, and
expensive, course of rabies injections).
They will definitely jump on you if you have
bananas for them, and will often make a dive
for your bag to look for possible bananas if
you don't. I advise that you don't buy
bananas, avoid taking a bag if possible, and
generally just keep your distance.