Protein-rich breakfast

5th January 2011

This morning I drank a mouthful of ants. It wasn’t my intention. We had a glass of water by the bed as always, and in the morning I sleepily took a drink from it. I’d taken a second mouthful before realising that the first swallow was very… bitty. I spat the new mouthful in the sink, and counted eight little ants before they drained away.

Last night Maureen found a frog in the bathroom. It was as big as the mouse from Ko Surin and clinging to the wall over the loo, so I can understand her scream. Maureen has no problem with either frogs or mice, but in England we’re so used to houses being wildlife-free zones that finding anything jumping around in your bathroom or on your hair can be a shock. This evening he was waiting on the front door when we returned from dinner, and I pride myself on merely arching an eyebrow at him before opening the door and entering.

This is our bungalow in Lom’Lae, on the island of Ko Yao Noi, and the wildlife we share it with really is part of the charm. We must tread carefully to avoid stepping on hermit crabs when we walk

out of the front door, and a three-foot long monitor lizard stared down at us from twenty feet up a coconut palm this afternoon. Birdsong during the day is replaced by the chirping of geckos at night, and this with the swashing of the waves is the lullaby we fall asleep to.

In fact the only unwelcome wildlife are the mosquitoes, which are absolutely rife here. It would be the height of eccentricity as well as very frustrating to lounge around this beautiful tropical paradise in long trousers and long sleeves, so instead we trail the pungent odour of a generous basting of citronella oil in our wake. It’s nowhere near as good as DEET at keeping the bugs away, but if we
put DEET on that much exposed skin every day for five days, I’m willing to bet we’d poison ourselves as much as the mossies.

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This entry was posted on Friday, January 7th, 2011 at 4:22 pm and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.