Thale Ban (cont'd)

So the next day, we wandered down to the information desk to get some answers. Namely, what times do the leeches come out, and what can we do to stop the miserable little blood-suckers? The same lady who advised us on the spider situation (shoo-shoo the spider) provided extraordinarily helpful information about the leeches. "Ahhhhh, not harmful. Once full, fall off. No worry. Not poisonous. Not harmful. Once full, fall right off."

This was not the information I was seeking. I don't want to wait for a leech to become engorged with blood before it finally drops off me. Yeah, I'm wimpy. I'll confess it readily.

Jon decided to head into the jungle, tucking his pant legs into his socks as an anti-leech mechanism. I waved Jon off, making him promise to turn around in four hours when it began to get dark. I decided to spend my afternoon reading on the patio of the bungalow, far far away from the leeches. While I read, two gigantic lizards (nearly a foot long) crawled past me. All the critters in Thale Ban were so large, I sort of felt like Alice in Wonderland.

About forty-five minutes later, Jon wandered back. His jungle foray was cut short because the path sort of disappeared. While we chatted on the porch, a woman on a cyclo came speeding into our yard. She ran toward us, waving a piece of paper. The paper said something like, "The cafeteria is closed [no food]. You will go with the woman who has this note to take you. She will take you to buying food on the border." (The previous night, the people in the cafeteria didn't seem too happy to cook for us. I don't think they get many visitors at Thale Ban.)

After a bit of discussion, we decided it would be best for me to go with the woman to procure food. So I happily hopped on the back of her cyclo, and we took off. I was happy for only a short while. About sixty seconds into our journey, it began to rain. I was pelted in the face so badly, I couldn't keep my eyes open. Of course, this did not seem to faze my driver. She just held one hand in front of her eyes and sped onward.

Eventually we got to the border and I purchased a bit of lackluster food. As we were driving off, the woman dropped her purse. A large butcher's knife tumbled out of her bag onto the sidewalk. She proceeded turn the bike around, and proceeded to pick up said knife with her toes while I perched on the back of the bike cautiously. A woman who can knife-fight with her feet is not somebody I would like to displease.

The next day consisted of a lot of reading. We saw monkeys in the trees over our bungalow. (One monkey even moved closer to give us the evil eye.) The restaurant was still closed, so Jon and I walked to the border and got a bit of exercise. (Okay, in all honesty, we may have been a bit lazy. On the way to the border, we hitched a ride.)

That's about it for Thale Ban. Except for the ant invasion in my medicine bag. And some animal committed fecal all over our porch. That wasn't so cool.