Leeches are interesting creatures. They spend most of their time (up to six months at a time) hanging around on a leaf waiting for a meal to come along, and then, wouldn't you know it, two meals come along at once! We've been feeding leeches pretty successfully for the past few days. They make undemanding guests; you hardly know they're there until you're bleeding all over your shirt, and when you pick them off and throw them away, they are so very eager to come back that it's touching. However, we are in the rainforest, as Klaus, "our friendly manager" tells us, and this seems to account for everything that happens, both good and bad.The people we're meeting here are of three types - locals, expats of various nations and visitors. We're firmly in the third category, you'ld think, but wait; our stay here is about three times longer than the usual visitors, who use the area as a one or two day stopover between Phuket and Kho Samui, or vice versa. The upshot is that people are beginning to recognise us as we amble about looking like something out of an Edgar Wallace story (or maybe it's because we wander about looking like ..... ).
In addition, Khao Sok village is VERY seasonal, and we're out of season. so the few vistors who are here are important to the local community. In the dry season (December - March) the place must be heaving, and there's a move to have Paradise Parties in the Jungle, Full Moon Parties etc. You can see the different factions as you walk around the village - some places have Bob Marley Posters, Che pictures and so on, and names like "Rasta Bar", "Freedom House", "Far Out Bungalows"; others have neat foliage, Thai flags and topiary and names like "Deep Forest Hideaway", "At Home with Nature" and "Green Mountain View". I'll leave you to decide where "Our Jungle House" fits into the picture, but a clue might be found in Klaus' house rule that the bar closes at 2100.
Today is our last full day here, and I'm making this entry in the village's tiny internet cafe, where the other computers are being used by local children doing their homework and Klaus doing his administration. In spite of the seasonal tourism, the village is still agricultural, and all those who run bungalow enterprises, guiding etc also have smallholdings where they grow bananas, papayas and rambutans and keep a few chickens, or work on the rubber plantations hereabouts. At this time of year, many of the little restaurants and shops are closed up.Tomorrow we go back to Surat Thani and on to Bangkok by overnight train, but in the meantime, we're still taking in the fact that we saw Langurs (leaf monkeys) and Great Hornbills today!
Next post will likely be Bangkok or Sydney.
2 comments:
I wonder how Faith, with her sl*g phobia, feels about those leeches! Though it is too late to send advice (squirt a lemon over or sprinkle them with salt & vinegar!), I have found an apt quotation for you from a Major Forbes writing in 1840 about the leeches of Ceylon: "They move quickly, are difficult to kill, and it is impossible to divert them from their bloody purpose; for, in pulling them from your legs, they stick to your hands, and fix immediately on touching the skin, as they are free from the scruples and caprice which is sometimes so annoying in their medicinal brethren ... the best way to frustrate the attacks of these insects on the nether man, is to case one's-self in nankeen pantaloons with feet attached: this dress should be made with well-joined seams, and to tie round the waist."
I have an interesting book at home on how to remove a leech from the eye. It's rather nasty. It also tells the wonderful story:
"While a woman was swimming in a stream in China, a leech swam up her nostril and lodged partly inside one of her sinuses. She was only aware, later, that she seemed to have a blockage in her nose."
You might just like to check your nose!
Don't worry there are plenty of Australian leeches in the Sydney region.
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