It seems fitting that coming to the end of my year (the year of the Snake, according to the oriental calendar) I should have two experiences with snakes in the space of 24 hours. A little disturbing in one case, very weird in the other.
Case one:
Riding home from dinner out in a great little place. I had fish thali. I hadn't eaten flesh for about 3.5 months, but had been craving meat, so thought it best to go for the lesser evil (which also supports the local fishing-based economy) and eat Kingfish. It was rather good, and served in a family restaurant complete with 1970's decor and loud TV. But I get side-tracked, we were not discussing my dinner.
On the way home we went the scenic route through Colom and stopped, coincidentally right outside a friend's house, because there were 3 men, a bag and a stick vs a long, thin, black and allegedly two-headed snake in the middle of the road. I say "allegedly" because I didn't get enough of a good look at it to confirm the two-headedness of said serpent, but apparently this was the case. Making all that saw it very lucky people indeed.
I was just happy to have finally seen a snake in the "wild" after almost 2 years living in Asia.
The snake finally got coaxed into the bag and one of the men got on his scooter with it to deposit it in the jungle. That's what he said, anyway and I believe him. I really would not want that job though.
Case two:
Walking along the beach the following day (a walk which subtley turned me into a lobster: note to self and others: do not buy "SunScreen" from your local beautician..). I tripped over something unpleasantly fleshy, which turned out to be an ex-sea snake. This is not an eel, in fact I'm not sure exactly what it is but it looks prehistoric and haunts you for the rest of the day.
Of course, I totally failed to have my camera with me on both occasions. I'm really just not good at this recording-my-life thing.
It also occurs to me that 4 months have gone by very quickly and I have seen 4 places. I should perhaps do a few more things while I am still here. Patnem is such an easy place to do nothing in, though...
Anyway, Happy New Year to all those following the lunar calender. We're going into the year of the horse, which I think promises to be more stable.
I wonder if I'll see any wild horses before it is out...
Case one:
Riding home from dinner out in a great little place. I had fish thali. I hadn't eaten flesh for about 3.5 months, but had been craving meat, so thought it best to go for the lesser evil (which also supports the local fishing-based economy) and eat Kingfish. It was rather good, and served in a family restaurant complete with 1970's decor and loud TV. But I get side-tracked, we were not discussing my dinner.
On the way home we went the scenic route through Colom and stopped, coincidentally right outside a friend's house, because there were 3 men, a bag and a stick vs a long, thin, black and allegedly two-headed snake in the middle of the road. I say "allegedly" because I didn't get enough of a good look at it to confirm the two-headedness of said serpent, but apparently this was the case. Making all that saw it very lucky people indeed.
I was just happy to have finally seen a snake in the "wild" after almost 2 years living in Asia.
The snake finally got coaxed into the bag and one of the men got on his scooter with it to deposit it in the jungle. That's what he said, anyway and I believe him. I really would not want that job though.
Case two:
Walking along the beach the following day (a walk which subtley turned me into a lobster: note to self and others: do not buy "SunScreen" from your local beautician..). I tripped over something unpleasantly fleshy, which turned out to be an ex-sea snake. This is not an eel, in fact I'm not sure exactly what it is but it looks prehistoric and haunts you for the rest of the day.
Of course, I totally failed to have my camera with me on both occasions. I'm really just not good at this recording-my-life thing.
It also occurs to me that 4 months have gone by very quickly and I have seen 4 places. I should perhaps do a few more things while I am still here. Patnem is such an easy place to do nothing in, though...
Anyway, Happy New Year to all those following the lunar calender. We're going into the year of the horse, which I think promises to be more stable.
I wonder if I'll see any wild horses before it is out...
