We spotted this giant monitor lizard just outside our bungalow. He was about a meter long, had a beautifully long neck and long purple forked tongue, and he moved very gently and gracefully over the boulders surrounding us. He is part of the big happy family that inhabits the island, which includes tiny brown ants (which like our pillows), sand fleas, black fleas, little black ants (which like our peanut M&Ms and muesli), big flies, small flies, bees, mosquitoes, millipedes, medium-sized ants, enormous drain-dwelling cockroaches, legions of stray dogs and cats, chickens, at least one goat, and, did I mention ants? Most of them, at least the flying and jumping ones, are hungry, either for our food or our blood, or both. We reckon we’ve each lost a pint so far to the little critters.
As a contrast and reality-check, at least we’re not in danger of the crocodiles, green mambas, pythons, rats and various water-borne diseases that now threaten the flood victims in Bangkok and other flooded lands. Between the two, we prefer to be in the relative safety of this concrete- and tree-covered little island.
