~thailand/khao_sok/drama/first_night

First night in the tree house was one to forget. Wow! Let me explain, but bear in mind i have told this story many times, and it never sounds quite as dramatic or scarey as it actually was.

Tory and I shared a large double bed, covered all over in a large mosquito net. Although it wasnt the mosquitos that i was worried about, it was the many creepy crawly things that hide everywhere and jump out when you're least expecting it. So we're lying there after an exhausting day's travel, maybe 2 or 3 in the morning. We were both on edge a little because the place was so dark, and we couldnt see enough at night in the tree house to do a full spider check. Tory is scared of spiders, and i am scared of anything that can move faster than me. We both were amazed before sleeping at how dark it was in the jungle. It sounds silly coz, at night everywhere is dark, but the jungle really was dark. Your eyes didnt adjust to any light, you couldnt see a thing, i have never experienced anything like it.

Also, the jungle is so loud. At night, the insects have a party, and go crazy. Noises all around. Big thuds near by, and banging on the door and roof are the scariest of all, makes you jump and gets your heart racing, especially as our tree house had big holes for windows, and our bathroom was in the corner and was open to the jungle with a huge skylight. Bottom line is, we felt very exposed and vulnerable in the house, particularly as we knew there were monkeys, gibbons, tigers, elephants etc etc all in the area.

Ok, so we are half asleep at about 3am ish, and all of a sudden there is this emmensely loud, blood curdling, spine chilling, heart stopping crash of glass. Bearing in mind we are no where near civilization, the nearest other bungalow is no where close. I can confidently say i have never been so scared in all my life. Tory jumped out of her skin, i panicked, but tried my best to calm Tory down, which was not easy. The crash came from the bathroom (about 1 metre away from the bed). I didnt let on to Tory just how scared i was untill the morning. The crashing of glass (bear in mind, there was NO glass in the tree house!!) lasted a few seconds, and then there was silence. Tory and I, too scared to move, held each other's hands and struggled to control our breathing for the next hour.

In the hour that i lay there without speaking, my mind went crazy with possibly explanations for the noise. Sometimes having a wild imagination is a very bad thing. My initial thought, and logical it seems, was that were were under attack by demonic monkeys (anyone who has seen Congo will know the ones i mean) throwing glass at out house. My second thought, and equally viable, was that it was aliens. Obviously. My third thought, and Tory's first was that someone was on our balcony trying to get in and attack us. My fourth thought was that we had been attacked by a huge gibbon, and that he was now inside our house and hanging in the rafters in the ceiling staring at us calculating his next move of attack into check mate. My fifth thought.... and so on. My mind was going crazy, and everytime is thought of something scarey, my heart was almost audible through my chest. The only was to calm myself down was to repeat over and over again "O God guide me, protect me..."

Tory meanwhile, was lying still, terrified, but comforted by the false assumption that i was not scared. If only she knew. well, 3 hours later, we were still awake, and i somehow had come to the conclusion that we must have had a soap dish in the bathroom (seemed unlikely tho), and a large, unimaginable insect had clumsily knocked it off the shelf and it smashed. Can you imagine my delight when i woke up to find a ceramic soap dish in pieces on the floor?? Phew!! what a night, not to mention the fact that we were forced to get up in the middle of it to use the bathroom. Turning the torch on was an ordeal and a half, as i was certain that as soon as there was light, we would see the demonic gibbon on the ceiling with white eyes ready to kill. Great experience, and needlesstosay, we survived it.