Wildlife - a tale from Thailand
Thailand’s nasties don’t make too many appearances in the popular tourist areas. I have encountered some creatures that I’d really prefer at a distance though: snakes, a rabid dog, a scorpion under my pillow, (which I was later assured was one of the non-deadly ones), and a never-to-be-forgotten encounter with the most enormous (and certainly the fastest), millipede I’d ever seen. These buggers, by the way, are apparently very venomous: the Thai restaurant owner outside whose premises it appeared provided great entertainment both to the locals and myself by chasing it around and giving it a good few smacks with his broom. Not the sort of visitor you’d want in your room on a sultry South-east Asian evening – much less shooting up your trouser-leg.
Get into Malaysia though, and everything starts to get bigger. You notice it in the far south of Thailand too. From butterflies, bees, - all kinds of insects, to monitor lizards. Strange that the larger they are, (initially), the less threatening they seem to be. The monitor lizards are lazy pussies who like nothing more than a take-away from the local rubbish dump. They are fascinating to watch, but very wary, and although they quickly become accustomed to being around humans, they will scarper very quickly if you get too near. They are very aware that it’s actually you that’s the dangerous predator. Try telling that to a scorpion or a fire ant or a louse or flea though: the smaller they are the less respect they have. Buggers.
I love to see wildlife up close – be at one with Nature and all that. There’s an amazing wildlife reserve in Northern India called Keoladeo. More popularly known as Bharatpur – after the town on its borders, it’s the staging post for countless thousands of migrating birds, and Greater European ‘twitchers’. You come across similar places all over the globe, and they are usually to be found located around large inland lakes or waterways.
I’d read about one such place in Thailand’s far-south, the Khu Khut Waterbird Park at Thale Sap, near Songkhla. It was little visited by foreigners, (at the time), and according to the entry I’d read in an English translation of a German guide book, didn’t have an official guest house of any kind – though you could apparently seek out accommodation with the local restaurant owners. The guide was pretty much right. When I arrived on the last bus into town, it was mid-afternoon. There were a few Thai tourists around but no Europeans. I could speak a leetle Thai around this time, and after a fair bit of struggle, managed to find myself a man with a boat, and made arrangements for him to pick me up at 5am the next morning for a dawn ride out onto the lake for a few hours.
Dinnertime!
The Thais visiting had all arrived in their own transport, and it didn’t look like any were staying the night. I found the restaurant without any problem (it wasn’t much more than a one-street town), had a meal and asked for a room. “Rooms?” – much jollity as is the Thai way in embarrassing, difficult or stressful situations. Well, OK, just about any situation, actually. “No, sorry: no rooms” “No rooms?!” “No rooms”. Ah. "Where can I sleep then?" Turned out there was nowhere, - and no bus out till tomorrow morning. Not so much as a motorbike taxi to get me outta town: I was stuck. Help was offered though and the owner of what was not much more than a shed with a bed, rented me the accommodation for the night. Cool. Hardly luxurious: but fine for a place to lay a tired head to ready one for an early start. I decided that an early night was in order. No, I didn’t: it was decided for me. The few stores shut up just as soon as the tourists had disappeared, as did the restaurant. All the local residents vanished into their houses to watch some boxing or a soap opera – who knows? Anyhow, even the lights went out pretty early. I went into my shed to make myself as comfortable as possible, and that’s when the buggers started into me.
In common with most sheds, there was no toilet or bathroom. Thankfully, I’d got rid of pretty much all I had to in the bathroom at the restaurant a little earlier. A wash and anything else could wait until morning. I took off my clothes and was about to get into bed when I felt a vicious bite on the top of my foot. Ow! Looking down, there was a line of what looked like tiny ants marching across the wooden floor and over my foot. There was a nasty welt on my foot where I’d been stung or bitten. I figured that I’d better treat it with some iodine. While I looked for the iodine in my wash-bag, and before I knew it, the insects were up my leg and biting again. Squashing what I could of the damned animals, I made an athletic leap for the bed.
Thinking I was safe, I lay down and tried to sleep, but barely a few minutes had passed before they were at me again. These things were digging into me: I mean not just biting, but burrowing and drawing blood! I went outside to the veranda, but the little brutes were everywhere. I paced up and down the little dirt street in the dark till I was exhausted and just had no option but to sit down again. Back they came: man, my blood must be good. Inside the little hut, it was no better. So passed the night: virtually asleep on my feet, exhausted, being eaten alive by little alien creatures that have no right to exist, let alone feed on Englishmen.
I passed a waking nightmare of a night, until the early hours and the sunrise brought a chance of getting out with the first bus. I was on it faster then you could shake a stick. Glad to get out, I figured my problems would now be over. I'd head to a big town with a decent doctor, splash on some cream, and all would once again be right with the world. Little did I know...
Hat Yai
If Hat Yai is well known for one thing, it's tourism - sex tourism. Not Europeans for a change, but Malaysian men who cross the border for what they can't get at home. It's far from an attractive place, but it's the biggest town in Sothern Thailand, and has a few big hospitals, lots of doctors, and plenty of clinics whose main speciality is (surprise, surprise), 'skin complaints'. I would be sure to find the answer to my problems here.
I arrived absolutely shattered. the first thing I did was to find a cheap hotel (which was pretty nasty, as it turned out), take a shower and crash out on the bed for a few hours.
Tale last updated: Monday, April 5th, 2010