We often encounter large crowds of people like this in Bali, but the strange thing about this group is that they weren't wearing their ceremonial clothes and there was little evidence of a temple/religious event.
I stopped and started asking around. People were saying that there was a strange monkey that appeared in this tree (top picture) several days ago. The monkey was actually there when I stopped, so I got a good look at him too. Most monkeys in Bali are relatively small, gray, and live a long ways from here, but this monkey was big, red, had a long tail. The people in the community said that the monkey was a spirit manifestation of some kind coming to visit. They said if this was the case, then obviously the spirit had come for a reason (to get something, receive offerings, give blessings, etc) and that's when I looked a bit closer and saw lots of offerings at the base of the tree and more people saying their mantras and offering sesajen while we were there. 
Funny thing is, there is a zoo very close to this tree. It is not the most modern zoo in the world, to say the least. It also has about a dozen of these exact same type of monkeys. Big, red, long tail... I could imagine it might be a possibility for a cheeky monkey to escape. Most of the local residents would never have had an opportunity to visit the zoo, so they didn't know about this possibility.When I talked to a guy at the scene about seeing one of these exact same monkeys at the zoo right down the road, he just laughed. He says a zoo escape is probably what happened, but I'm sure he went and did an offering and said a mantra... just in case.
