Bug Attack! (Well, kind of...)

During my regular evening shower, everything started out perfectly normal. On occasion I have a bathroom visitor or two during my showers (ex: toads, cockroaches, beetles, spiders, mosquitoes, etc.) but tonight there was only one lonely bug. What drew my attention to it was how a stealthy gecko was able to sneak up on it and promptly gulp it down. The only problem was that the bug had really large wings, so the gecko just kept shaking it like a dog might shake a chew toy or something. Eventually all of the wings fell off, enabling the gecko to continue with its meal.

Shortly thereafter, my real-live discovery channel-like bathroom experience got a lot more intense. I kept hearing sounds on the tin roof of the bathroom, almost like rain was falling. I thought it was kind of strange though since it was more sporadic than rain. It was then that I chose to look up. Looking through a section of the bathroom's somewhat translucent roof that allows light in during the day I saw them...it looked like thousands of bugs (the same type that the gecko ate) frantically crawling on the roof, trying to get to the light in the bathroom. By that point, some of them were making it through and were zooming past my head. I hurried to finish my shower since I was feeling pretty vulnerable in my current position then hurried back into the house.

As I passed my host family on my way to my room, I commented to my host sister "mii melang yeut yeut!" (have a lot of bugs!) as I gestured in the direction of the bathroom. She quickly jumped up and hurried to turn of all of the lights in and around the house, instructing Zack and I do do the same. After that, we sat in the dark for awhile as massive amounts of newly hatched bugs continued to swarm outside, seeking out light for whatever reason it is that bugs are drawn to light. 

As we were sitting in the dark, my host sister called from the other room for me to come take pictures. (She knows by now that I usually have a camera handy!) We looked out the window and could see what looked like millions of them swarming around the street lamp. Seeing this as an opportunity to share about Thailand with everyone back home, I grabbed my camera and headed outside with the rest of our host family to try to get a picture of the spectacle. I'm sad to say that the pictures I took don't do the real experience justice. The bugs (my host sister called them meng mao) where like a dense fog. As they lost their wings and dropped to the ground, dozens of frogs were ready to feast. I was just grateful to not be one of the people trying to navigate their way via motorcycle tonight. 

Our neighbor across the street saw us out and about and was curious as to why we were all hanging out outside as these bugs continued to swarm. She asked if we had the same types of bugs in America and we confidently responded that we had never experienced anything like this before. Eventually the bugs died down and we were able to turn the lights back on. Now our evening is continuing as normal and we're getting ready to settle in for the night. Gotta get some rest to take on a new week in Thailand full of more brand new, exciting, random, interesting and most likely uncomfortable and/or awkward (but still so valuable!) experiences.

This is one happy/very full toad.