We went in search of the Indonesian Horn Bill (bottom-right) after they flew past us in Central Kalimantan, flying so high we could barely see them. We were told that the Bali Bird Park would be a good place to see horn bills close up, as they are illusive in the wild. The park is reputed to have one of the finest collection of Indonesian birds. Bali Bird Park is simultaneously a tourist attraction with a large walk in aviary, and a breeding center for Birds of Paradise and Starlings. It has a collection of some 250 species of birds and about 1000 birds from seven regions around the world, including the African Grey Crowned Crane (top-right) that we last saw in Africa, among others.

Bali Bird Park is a great place to entertain kids as well as adults. Handlers place birds on visitors head and hands, so guests could get their photos taken. These days the price for admission is 350k IDR (under $24 USD) to help maintain the park, which was well kept up.

There are many entertaining programs throughout the day, including demonstrating how birds of prey capture food, feedings, exotic bird shows, native plants display. Whenever we’re traveling, we enjoy popping into see these mindless relaxing attractions.

Monkey Forest Park in Ubud, Bali, is another escape. It is the sanctuary and natural habitat of more than 1000 Balinese long tail macaque monkeys. There are three ancient temples on the 12.5 hectare forested site.

The monkeys are well fed with large bags of sweet potatoes (center-left), fruits and other foods the trainer feeds them all day.

Even though the monkeys are well fed, they still seek more whenever tourists come. They jumped onto back packs to find shiny things as well as food, and you can see one monkey going after an iPhone, and jumping on Evelyn (top row). Yes, they do have sharp teeth…!