living on a thin line
sabaidee ka, dear readers. i’m STILL on koh tao enjoying (for the most part) my little bit of paradise. the bits i have not enjoyed so much include torrential rain storms, 100 mph winds (or at least it seems like they were that gusty), and the flying around of detritus (palm fronds, dead coconuts, sand, and various flora from up high and down low) during same climatic madness. another weird feeling i’ve had during all of this drama is that i am the only person remaining, and have been the only person for a couple of days now, at my bungalows besides the thai owners and few burmese workers. they all go to sleep fairly early and i suppose are used to the monsoons, but i am unused to such chaos from the heavens and i have found that sleeping through the night is challenging at best. fortunately, my bungalow is made mostly of cement but the thatched conical roof with its fiberglass windows way up high in the cone make me wonder just how secure these parts of the structure really are. so far, knock on bamboo, nothing has caved in or flown away, but the areas between cement and thatch are open, as are the windows which only have a few jail cell-like bars keeping out the larger critters and covered by thin curtains, allowing all manner of smaller debris to fly up and into my room. each morning i discover a whole new pile of small leaves and bits of seaside debris covering my floor and blanket. i have also had a late-night visitor when the winds and rain have been very heavy: a cute little gray rat. he/she is very scared of me and hides between the bed stand (the bed is up about 3 1/2 feet from the ground on a cement block with a thin layer of linoleum between it and the mattress) and bamboo bathroom wall (the latter being simply stalks of bamboo cut in various heights of about 5 to 7 feet. because thai plumbing cannot handle toilet paper, we have to toss our used paper into a bin and flush our business down with buckets of water. these buckets are usually placed right next to the loo so one can easily “flush” right after doing one’s business.
the first time i noticed “willard” was one night when i’d accidentally left a fried springroll in a plastic bag lying on my bed stand next to my pillow (the mattress takes up nearly all of the bed stand space, leaving about 2″-3″ or so around it for storage of clothing and miscellaneous items; otherwise, there would be no storage and everything would be on the floor or in the backpack, neither of which is very desirable). at some point in the night i went to take a wee and saw him scurrying from the toilet to a safe place behind the sink. i did not freak out, friends. i called my friend chum (of course i am probably spelling his name wrong but as i am unable to read/write in thai i will just have to guess by the way it is pronounced) over to help out with a problem with someone in my bungalow. chum was working at moondance at the time when the bungalows were filled all the time. he speaks pretty good english and so the owners, i think, are happy to have him around to help with the farangs (westerners). chum is not working there now as it is the low season, but is now working in his shop where he makes unusual and very pretty stone jewelry and who-knows-what-else on the road from chalok to mae haad. he ran over to my house asking “how many legs” (“four”), but by the time he arrived the little bugger had disappeared and i believe he thought i was making the whole thing up. this incident occurred a few weeks ago and thereafter i thought willard was gone for good. not so. the beast returns!
the second and third times i encountered little willard, it was stormy as all-git-out and i think the poor little guy was seeking refuge from the elements outside for i had no food of any sort inside, save some hard candy wrapped in plastic (who knew rats liked candy?), to tempt him indoors. why he didn’t simply go into the bungalow next door on either side of me where no human was residing is beyond comprehension. not the sharpest knife in the drawer, old willard is. when i found him the second & third times, he was hiding behind the bamboo wall between the bathroom and bed stand. i noticed him moving slightly and so scooped up a bucket full of water or two and tossed them in his direction. he got a bit drenched, i think, and scurried away. only problem was that i never saw where he went! i am pretty sure he crawled up the wall and out the window above the bed, or up and over the wall completely, but he was so fast i really couldn’t tell.
also the third time i encountered willard was after a night of temporarily calm weather. i’d been outside chatting with chum who’d come by to visit and when it began to rain and he went up to the place where he sleeps when working at moondance and i went into my bungalow i saw willard almost immediately poking his little bitty head in my side window. first it was just the sight of the shadow of his profile, then the sound of his feet scratching on the linoleum bed stand covering, and finally spying his long tail behind the bamboo bathroom wall. this last time was just last night as i lie awake very late as the wind howled outside, the curtains blew around inside, and the rain poured down on the roof above my head.
am “making buddha” today that willard finds another place to seek refuge as i’m not too keen on sharing my room with him again tonight. actually, i will probably move to another place tonight for a change of scenery. it seems that the west side of the island is getting the brunt of the storms coming over from burma, so it seems that a move to the east side is a better option (possibly to tanote bay). besides that, my hosts may want to shut the bungalows down for the season and let the workers go until the tourists return in july. if i’m the only one holding them up, then i should take my leave so as not to inconvenience them any longer than necessary.
stay tuned for updates on my monsoon travel drama hijinks.
Tags: Thailand
karen_shelver
you tell willard “shazam” begone or be cast out! thanks for the updates and a belated birthday greeting to you from the land of fog and glow. Enjoy the moment as it lasts forever.
ouch.
rats.
not into it.
that’s why i always travel with at least 2 cats.
reminds me of some nights i had on the channel islands. one night i was awakened by a mouse seemingly entangled in my hair…not fun. the rangers used to put the bed legs in buckets of water when it got bad. another night i awoke to a big owl flapping in the open window…maybe got ahold of my little furry buddy?! good owl dreams that night. –S