Pommie Travels

Exotic pet market in Denpasar

Next to Satria Palace in Denpasar lies a pet market. Despite Satria Palace being a main ’sight’ to visit, we had not come to see this or anything else in Denpasar, we had come to see for ourselves what we had heard about Pasar Satria.

When we pulled up on the bike on Jalan Veteran Denpasar we found some cute, cuddly looking puppies on the roadside, and the man selling them could see in my eye how much of a soft touch I am when it comes to dogs. He got out a cute little black one and put it in my arms and immediately I was like putty- I would have happily taken them all home if I could. He could see it in my eyes that I can’t say no when it comes to puppies. Being greeted by these cute little things- pomeranians, white fluffy ones, cute little black and brown ones, you might be forgiven for thinking this was a fairly normal place to find a dog, even though they were in cages.

Then we crossed the road.

This was one of the happier looking monkeys.

At Satria you can find anything from bats and monkeys to exotic birds, fish, rabbits and ants.  The saddest of all are the monkeys, who are chained up with collars around their necks. As we walked further down the street we saw some big bats hanging upside down in a wicker cage- I don’t know what anyone would want with a great big bat, but if you want one you can get one.

As we walked down the street past all the bird cages I couldn’t help but notice the contrast from the ‘puppy aisle’ across the road. We walked past some ants and I immediately felt like they were crawling all over me. This was a really f*cked up place indeed.

But it got worse. Steve directed me to the monkey shop where literally tons of monkeys were all chained and in cages. It became too much, we had to leave…