Saturday, March 1, 2008

neighbor, cats, spider

Have another interesting neighbor next to me at Jinda Bay on Ko Phangan. She is a lovely Korean girl, I don't remember her name, who is visiting the island and heading back to Korea within the week to resume her studies in Economics. Only 23 yrs old, she is here by herself and has already traveled to around 30 countries in her short time. She has already been to India 3 times, twice by herself, as well as many of the middle eastern countries. I was able to persuade her to check out the yoga center and take in some classes. The 2nd day she was here she decided to walk to the yoga center and back in the morning, a 3 or 4 mile walk each way. Then in the afternoon I noticed her walking back a second time to make it to class at 4pm. I picked her up on my motorbike and gave her a lift, saving her legs a full 2nd trip.

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Was spending the night at Victoria's place the other night when we were awakened by some incredibly noisy cats nearby going at it with each other. At first we weren't sure if it was some human babies crying or if it was actually cats getting ready to fight with we each other. The sounds of the cats didn't sound distinctly feline at the beginning but almost more like babies. However, after a while it became obvious that it was cats making the noise. It was the most bizarre sounding cats that I had ever heard in my life. At one point it was going on for about 10 minutes or so and we could here some of the neighbors yelling to shut them up but it didn't faze them. It was quite amusing at first listening to the cats but after a while it became apparent it wasn't going to stop. I had to go outside and and throw something in the cats vicinity over a fence to get the things to shut up and run off.

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One night after the incident with the cats I got a call from Victoria immediately after she had arrived back at her bungalow. She was totally freaked out as there was a huge spider on the mosquito netting surrounding her bed. Typically she is quite ok with insects and spiders as they are all over the place and a part of everyday life. They are in one's bathrooms and on walls everywhere. She requested that I come over to her place at once and get rid of the thing. I was more than happy to oblige and interested to get a look at the thing. Upon arriving at her place and finding her keeping a safe distance away on her porch, I walked into her place and found the huge specimen calmly sitting on her net. I decided to get some toilet paper to pick the spider up and take it outdoors. My first several attempts to snare the spider were unsuccessful as I was a bit reluctant to put all effort into grabbing it due to its size. However, there was no way I was going to let the thing get away. Just as it was getting close to escaping and making its way around the corner of the netting to the wall. I was able to pick it up successfully in the tissue. I took it outside to a light to get a better look at it. I'm not sure exactly what kind of spider it was but i'm sure it could definitely do some damage biting somone. In examining the tissue after letting the spider go, I could see some moist spots permeating the paper. I would imagine it was venom from its fangs as it was probably trying to bite me when I was picking it up and squeezing it tightly in the paper.

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