Another Creature Feature

As promised (threatened?), here are some more pictures of the wee beasties we share our daily lives with. Some cute, some cuddly, some creepy; some sweet, some scary, some stunning; some petty, some pretty big and some petty horrible. You've been warned. Let's start with cute and cuddly.

Perry was having dinner with a friend recently on a night stop in Kampong Cham en route back from the upper Mekong when this spider decided to join the party. After watching us for about 5 minutes and ignoring our efforts to move it on, it was finally scared off by the arrival of a Buddhist monk who was joining us. Probably didn't realise that monks are vegetarians. A little later, one of its buddies climbed up the back of Perry's trousers and bit him on the leg. This stung (quite a lot actually) and led to the interjection of Anglo Saxon into what had previously been a conversation in English with the odd word of Khmer. Perhaps slightly surprisingly, the monk knew the word and found the whole episode rather humorous. Perry now has a large red mark with two holes left by the mandibles on the back of his thigh. We're keeping an eye on it but so far Perry has shown no signs of climbing up walls or battling evil super-villains. And the spider? Well, it came off worse. Dead before it even left the trousers.

Because I squished it, obviously! But at least it wasn't one of these, as their bite is very nasty indeed. We've mentioned the millipedes that trundle around everywhere in the jungle eating the decomposing leaves; they're harmless and interesting to watch. This, on the other hand is a centipede. Much less often seen, thankfully, as they're carnivorous and highly poisonous. We almost stepped on this one while walking at night in Kep but, luckily, saw it in the light from Perry's head torch. It was well over a foot (30 cm) long and we gave it a wide berth.

So let's stay on the ground for a while and see what else we can find. Ah yes, time for cute. We present: Babe III - Life in Cambodia.

Sadly, I suspect that this little piggy will go whee whee whee all the way to the pot. Luckily for the puppy, it lives on an island nowhere near the Vietnamese border otherwise its fate would possibly be the same (yes, they do...)

Cambodians, on the other hand, treat their dogs as either pets or working animals - most of the beasts on the farms are there to work. The buffalo below is just taking a break from its day job; it will shortly be back in front of a cart or a plough.

Buffaloes are huge - imagine a bull on steroids, or Arnold Schwarzenegger with horns. Despite their reputation in the rest of the world as unpredictable and dangerous, the ones here seem to be very docile. Which is more than can be said for these little monsters.

Ants are everywhere in Cambodia. They range from almost invisibly small to, frankly, bloody huge. And even the little ones burn like hell when they bite - if they can get through the skin. For some reason, they don't seem to be able to penetrate Perry, but Sarah is one of their favourite snacks. Add to that their perception that a towel makes an ideal nest and you can begin to see the problem. Here's a close up of one of the bigger variety.

Time to go to the water and another beast you find everywhere here: crabs. They're in the sea, the mangroves, the rivers and even the ponds. Luckily, they haven't found the bathrooms yet (although Perry did share a shower with a hermit crab on Koh Chang island recently).

The amateur naturalists among you might like to count all the crabs in the picture above. It's a lot easier when they're moving! There are all sorts of them, including swimming crabs that scoot by as you watch. Some are quite stunning, like the one below in among the mangrove roots. This being Cambodia, we can also report that all are delicious.

Good job the feeling's not mutual.



Staying with the water, another thing that gets eaten are the snails. But are they worth it? Well, the one below was the size of a grapefruit and eats rice plants, so it's a win-win for the Cambodians (though, sadly, not for the snails).

Cambodians also eat frogs, although I think I might hesitate a bit before putting these two on my plate.

And what else do we find in the water? Elephants, of course.

Yes, ha-ha. Actually, there were three in the pool with us.

The great thing about elephants is that they attract butterflies.

And dragonflies.

Think we're kidding? What do you think that wet stuff is? Yes, butterflies love elephant p***.

That's why humans ride up on top of them.

The only drawback with being at this level is that it brings you up close and personal with the tree dwellers.

Let's stick with the jungle for a little while and see what else we can find. Well, for a start, there are lizards everywhere. Some of them get quite large.

And there are beautiful insects, as well as scary ones. Mind you, some of the dragonflies are the size of small helicopters.



The monkeys are easier to hear than see, but they sometimes come to the edge of the forest to forage.

The birds too are hard to spot, though they are to be found everywhere. The kingfishers along the Mekong are spectacular... ly difficult to photograph! This is the best we've done so far.

On the other hand, there are minah birds everywhere that don't care about whether you've got a camera or not, so long as there's food to steal.

There are so many beasts here that it can drive you up the wall. But even then you can't escape. We thought tree frogs were supposed to live in trees.

Thanks to these two, we're now inundated (again) with baby geckos. Time to check the toaster.

And we're not done yet. We were sitting minding our own business the other evening when we were joined by a bat. Despite our opening all the doors, it flew round and round our apartment until it found its natural roosting place. Our ceiling.

We think it must have brought the cobwebs in with it as there surely can't be any other explanation. We finally encouraged it to move on with the help of a very soft broom (so that we wouldn't run any risk of hurting it). It's next choice of roost would have been rather unfortunate if the fan had been switched on!

But we finally encouraged it to leave. Which is a trick we did not succeed in with this kitten that adopted us during a recent short break on Koh Chang island, just across the Thai border.

And you don't get much cuter than that!

VSO is a leading development charity with almost 1,500 skilled professionals currently working in over 34 countries. VSO's unique approach to international development is founded on volunteers, working together and with local communities to fight poverty and achieve lasting change. If you want to learn more about VSO, please visit www.vso.org.uk