Moving to Asia involves more than just a change of scenery for me. Above all, it’s a shift in nature and climate that feels entirely new. The variety of flora and fauna here is so vast that you need eyes in the back of your head.
Traffic - controlled chaos | South Asia
I just came back covered in mud after an impromptu scooter ride near the rice fields. Just before making a turn at an intersection, a buffalo with massive horns charged towards me,apparently fleeing from someone in the field. As unusual as the situation was, I simply dodged animal and problem Was solved. It’s kind of funny because I can sense that I’m getting the hang of the local road rules, or rather the lack of them. Whether in Thailand or Cambodia, I’ve noticed that locals handle scooters more efficiently , than we walk in Europe (the simple rule of sticking to the right seems too complicated for half the population…).
Sometimes, you see a family of four cruising on a single unicycle, and they don’t seem unhappy at all – more like a family on a mobile couch cruising down the road – all relaxed. Occasionally, a dog or two or some oversized cargo hops on board, and still, everything is always under control.. I wondered how I would cope with this “Asian” traffic, when in the past I had seen videos and memes indicating the road chaos here.. Now I know that this chaos is controlled, everyone drives as they please, once dodging from the left, once from the right, on instinctive overlap passes once the subordinate and once the one with priority, the ground is not to disturb each other, not to create danger.. Of course, sometimes, there are traffic lights at major intersections, and the principle of direction priority (Cambodia – on the right, Thailand on the left) works, but the locals are flexible in this movement.. This just makes the road system more efficient,everyone is careful of the one in front and the one on the side, period. And so honestly, the question that has always bothered me is how people in the city endure traffic jams. Moving a few meters to wait for the green again. A terrible waste of time and energy. In public transport you read a book, the news, do a language lesson. Here it’s different, the lack of heavy traffic, this flexibility of movement, omnipresent nature all around, well, and you’re not in a metal box, you’re not occupying half the roadway – scooter is the way of living!
Thailand - what lurks in the water, what in the grass
On Koh Phangan I am captivated by nature, because unlike the larger urban-tourist centers, here everything is blended into the jungle, not the other way around. The result is diversity everywhere, both in terms of fauna and flora. During my volunteer work at Samma Karuna – a yoga, meditation center, I worked 4h every day within the center. All day long you are one big ear, listening to dozens of different sounds.. Sitting in the treetops, birds were constantly calling each other, and one of them was notoriously shouting in a way, very much like polish sounds of “ouch”, a bit like some Pole tripping over something every now and then.. As you rake leaves, rest in the “office” or perform a pose in a yoga class, large multicolored butterflies flyover your head every now and then.. Magic.
Falling snakes
Among one of the duties of volunteers is to prepare the rooms for classes, where the first, of meditation, begins at 7 am Imagine me, the opposite of a morning bird, awakened at 6:10 a.m. to take a shower and half-live to start my shift at 6:30 a.m. Well, one time, Margot and I were sweeping, as we always do, the Buddha Hall (the largest hall, roofed off, but with no front or side walls, surrounded by nature, overlooking the sea). At one point behind my back I heard a strange sound, of something falling in a high pitch. It was a green, half-meter long, thin – a coconut snake, which was either hunting for something hiding under the roof, or hiding by itself. Literally half a second after he fell, he raised his head quickly, calculated the threat (us), the distance, then fled in another half second to the edge of the room and disappeared. I thought ok, I was slightly scared, because it was sudden, but the reptile itself was quite charming (of course, because it was small, 2 meters away from me and was more afraid than I was). Two days later we raked leaves on the beach in front of the resort, a few meters from the Buddha Hall. In the hall, the morning meditation is just taking place, and I, with headphones on my ears, am doing my thing. Suddenly, from the tree under which I was cleaning, another snake falls, but this time directly in front of my face, and in its mouth it holds a hunted mouse – yes, this time I was not an oasis of calm – I threw the rake, jumped up and shouted concretely. Happily in front of the eyes of a full room of meditators and Margot, who was raking nearby and choking with laughter – thanks…
So already 2 falling snakes, plus possibly a third one, which I met in a restroom in a restaurant, hanging over the cistern and a fourth onegracing the terrace while I was on the phone. Noi – working at the front desk says it’s “for luck”.
The food chain within the house
Observing the nature here, you begin to see half of the food chainwe read about in nature textbooks, nothing goes to waste. On the walls of the bungalows, the “house pets” are geckos/lizards. They chat all afternoon and evening, waiting for an insect to rest in its territory, like a self-serving meal on the table. I’m so used to them that, despite hiding in the cottage after 5pm, when the bloodsuckers wake up to hunt, I’d turn on a lamp on the terrace to help the lizards lure their prey a bit. Worse in terms of cleaning up after them, because geckos, lizards, salamanders (I think?) crawl wherever they want, inside, even into the refrigerator, and so to speak, their outcropping is where they happen to be stationed.
One day, while sick and incapacitated for a few days, I was lying in in bed with Netflix. Upon returning from the restroom, I noticed that there was a spider the size of my hand over my bed, right over where my head had been lying for hours.. Okay, a snake I can survive, but spiders I’m terrified of overkill.. I got a panic attack, shaking like a jelly, chills and sweat all over my body, and the worst – no escape route, because the 8-eyed creature is inches from the door. I’m a humanitarian, I don’t kill for no reason, but if I have to, I try to do it effectively so that the creature doesn’t suffer. At this point it was just me and him, I grabbed a small towel and proceeded to attack, boom, he fell behind the bed. Barely catching my breath, I thought, if there is no corpse – I will never sleep in this room again. So, I push back the bed and look for it. After a while, the monster was on the adjacent wall, and I had one last chance to open the door and “push him out” – I succeeded. Yes, now I check every wall, ceiling, pillow, comforter before I go to sleep, before I even lay down on the bed. Urgh.
Natural recycling
What scares me the most, though? Cockroaches.. This is a very rare sight in Poland, but here the buggers are doing well. They know perfectly well at what hours to “officiate” when a person is asleep, so from 1 a.m. they prowl all over. What is so frightening about them? Their intelligence or behavioral instinct!When they detect movement, they freeze, hoping that humans won’t notice them, but when they realize that they are exposed – they run like a shot through half a house, directly to the exit. Their armor is so flexible that even hitting them does not necessarily result in capitulation. Anyway, cockroach – eliminate the enemy – mission accomplished – get rid of the corpse – go back to bed. The other day I take a shower in the morning, and just next to the shower faucet is an alcove in the tiles,through which ants pass. Suddenly in this ant retinue I see a dissected cockroach,transported to the nest. A leg, a piece of armor, etc. Well, somewhere I missed pieces of yesterday’s crime, however, recycling works all day.
Eat or be eaten!
As for ants – in Poland, you sit on a lawn or clearing and fear ants, wasps or mosquitoes at most. Here, ants range from micro to macro sizes. They roam every inch of the jungle and man’s property. If something in the area has died, 20 minutes later it is already on the production line of these inconspicuous insects.
As a volunteer at Samma Karuna, I decided to start with a dormitory. Poor conditions, heat from the restaurant below the place generated additional warmth, turning the room into hell. The small refrigerator for 6 people was obviously too small, so we left a lot of food on it. One day I noticed that my bananas had disappeared,but with me you never know, I’ll light up, the gastro will turn on, I’ll eat everything within a kilometer radius, maybe I forgot. However, the next day one disappeared again. It turned out that we had additional tenants – micethat apparently measure high! A month later, when I changed my location to a lake house, I realized during the first night that I was not alone. I quickly located that I was living with mice again! Good thing it wasn’t rats,because then I would have been packed on my way to Poland after a minute. Here I had a dilemma, what to do? I can’t sleep with the knowledge that something is here, and on the other hand – killing a cute little mouse? With pain in my heart I spread the poison I got from the landlord, but the mouse was not stupid… So we lived like that for a month, until I had to change accommodation again, of which will write about soon…
Keep your eyes on the fins
On Koh Phangan, you can often encounter signs warning of a danger in the water – jellyfish. However, until you encounter them, you downplay the warnings. My first encounter was a stroke of luck – while swimming at “Pirate Beach” (a nudist beach), I suddenly felt a strong pinpoint piercing pain on my neck. It was a bit as if something had stung me, and I, confused, could not locate the culprit. For 2 minutes the pain was very strong, I do not recommend. Only after a while I noticed miniature jellyfish about 5 cm. Several friends had less luck, including one – who ended up in the hospital in very bad condition, with a scar on half of hrs back.
What to do in case of jellyfish burns?
- Pour vinegar over the sting site – this neutralizes the further spread
- of the toxin if there are feelers left on your body – remove them
- DO NOT wash the wound with water or apply ice – this worsens the condition
- urine DOES NOT help – MYTH
- alcohol DOEST NOT help
After 8 months living in Asia I’ve simply gotten used to certain things. To the fact that going to the toilet at night, I will meet public enemy number 1, which, eliminated, in the morning will be dissected by a colony of small collectors. I don’t even react anymore to the gecko that comes out of my refrigerator when I look into it. That at 7 to 9 a.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. you have to hide, because bloodsuckers spreading Dengue are prowling. And well, just as in Australia they check shoes, here like infrared glasses I check the walls, the floors, the comforter. And falling two snakes, well… They probably won’t be the last!
Ps. Please let me know what you think of my publications so far and maybe there is someyhing you wish I could write about? Feedback is always welcome!
