Getting Ratty On Koh Tao
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Paul TravMonkey recounts a sleepless night before competing his scuba diving course on Thailand's Koh Tao island thanks to an unwelcome nocturnal companion
This is a guest post from Paul at TravMonkey.com
I woke at about 2-3 in the morning to nip to the toilet in my modest beach hut. As I unlocked the toilet door and then swung it open a large brown rat stirred, looked me in the eye and dashed up one of the wooden beams on to the ceiling. His tail was about 8 cm's long and his body about 10cm, he was more brown than the more common black or grey city rats but he was just as fat. He was particularly ugly and he looked much more like a beach rat than a sewer rat.
I was too tired to shout at it or to poke it with a stick so I left it alone and went back to bed. I had a peaceful night's rest, myself and "Ratty" (as I liked to call him) were getting along fine - after all we seemed to have a mutual understanding going.
After a busy day diving we were told that the following day we would going to be heading out to Chumphon. Champon is a lot further off the coast than all the other dive sites we'd visited so far and to make matters worse our next dive was with grey reef sharks at 18 metres deep. To have the dive site all to ourselves we needed to leave the dive center at 6 o'clock in the morning.
I wanted to be as prepared as possible for the scariest dive so far so I left Lotus Bar on the beach and my dive buddies from New Zealand at about 9.20 to head for an early night. I only had a couple of beers as I wanted to be fresh the next day for the dive. I was planning to get up at about 5.20, to give myself time to have a shower and walk to the dive center.
I climbed into bed before 10 o'clock but with no mosquito net I was being eaten alive. I was attempting to sleep for about ten minutes when the trouble started. My friend "Ratty" decided it was time to dance about between the roof and the ceiling above my bed. I could hear him move around the hut to either side and even next to and under my bed. I was getting angry. I grabbed the broom and banged the walls and ceiling. It only seemed to make him worse - our relationship was beginning to turn sour.
After banging the ceiling "Ratty" seemed to return the favour by squeaking in such a way that made my skin crawl...it was late, I was tired, but war had been declared. I pulled on a pair of combats, a t-shirt and grabbed my weapon of choice.....the broom. I banged the wall next to the bathroom taking a wild guess where he was hiding then I moved to the bathroom hoping I he would make a reappearance. With a camera in my hand I attempted to set the flash, whilst I was fiddling he appeared, stared me in the eye then made a run for it. He was too high for me to reach so I threw the broom at him, missing as he hid. I checked my camera only to find a picture of a grey bathroom wall.
"Ratty" certainly seemed nocturnal, partying hard on my ceiling until 3-4 in the morning. I attempted to forgive him for his actions thinking I was probably staying in his home. I attempted to lie down to sleep, but at two minute intervals there would be a rattle or thumping sound as he ran around in between the roof and inside walls. At 3 minute intervals I switched the light on thinking he was actually in the room with me and not just in between the walls. The sound he made gave the impression he was in the room when he wasn't, the squeaking noise he made was something out of a horror film and went right through me like nails on a black board. Time was ticking away and the sun would be up before I knew it. Once again I switched the light off and lay back down, suddenly I could hear some squeaking very near to my head and a noise as if "Ratty" had just dashed across my bed. I sat up, switch on the light, but there was nothing there, then suddenly like a flash of lightening he zipped across the nearby shelf, jumped onto the double bed and disappeared down the side.
I was in shock, my only source of comfort in this whole affair was that I was safe in the knowledge that "Ratty" had the understanding that he was living between the walls and I was living in the room. The golden rule had been broken and left me reeling trying to think of solutions to my dilemma. I couldn't sleep on the bed, I couldn't turn out the light, after all I didn't want to be woken with a rat on my face. It was late, 2-3 in the morning, had no one told "Ratty" I was doing my most important dive of my PADI Open Water course at 6 in the morning the following day? Apparently not. I had lost the war. I grabbed two pillows and headed for the balcony to sleep with the mosquitos. I pulled together two wooden chairs and attempted to sleep, it was nice outside looking up at the stars as a rattling noise came from inside the hut giving the impression "Ratty" was finding a comfortable spot on my big double bed.
On the balcony there was no chance of sleeping, every ten minutes a chorus of frogs made strange but loud noises from the grass in front of my hut. I played with the idea of heading for a lounger on the beach but was reminded about the large number of dogs roaming around as they howled and barked at each other in the distance. I could see the beach through the palm trees but I opted for staying awake on the balcony. At about 4 o'clock I went back in the hut, "Ratty" was no where to be seen so I put my head down and managed to sleep for about an hour before my alarm clock woke me at 5:20. The sun was yet to rise.
I thought I would have to cancel my dive for the following day, but my ever optimistic dive instructor, Vince (from Belgium) just enthusiastically laughed at the story of the rat and said (in a Borat type accent), "Just see how it goes, yeah?". I was tired but adrenaline was going to get me through most of the day.
Read more about Paul's Australia exploits at TravMonkey.com
Other Travelhappy posts of interest:
- Perhentian Islands, Malaysia: A Quick Guide
- 5 Five Star Hotels On Koh Tao
- Bangkok’s New Suvarnabhumi Airport Opens
- Moved To Koh Tao
- Thanks To My Guest Bloggers on Travelhappy
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One Response to “Getting Ratty On Koh Tao”
Rcon
April 25th, 2007
I heard that the Koh Tao island in Thailand is really a nice place. You are lucky to get there. I have to visit the place soon.