Fierce Creatures--by Cent

[JJsushi]

I will be in BKK right after Xmas and looking to celebrate the New Year holidays.

You buy the beer and I will but the whisky chasers!

[Central Scrutinizer]

xmas,

 

Well, not a dream life exactly, but one I enjoy for the most part, most of the time. It has its ups and downs. But I do love my wife and her family, and I suppose that helps to take the bad with the good right? :-) To tell you the truth the worst experience I had there was when a farang stayed there this past summer. I'll write about this soon. It really is embarrassing the way some of these guys behave. Makes it harder for all the rest of us. It's a testament to the Thais that more of these idiots aren't getting their asses kicked all over the sois. They'd be getting hurt where I'm from if they behaved like some of them do, that's for sure. Rude ignorant fucks.

 

Thank christ the idiot is gone now, and probably spending time in the monkey house in BKK/PTY by now. Maybe I should set up a village screening commitee and have a cop friend run their passports through interpol and the other police computers available to him. :-) This guy was a serious Lao Khao nutter, and I knew he was about 90 days overdue on his visa. Wait'll I write the story. You won't believe it, but it's true.

 

Cent

[Central Scrutinizer]

shygye,

 

Well, you're right of course. The mosquito is probably the most dangerous insect that you can have bite you when visiting or living in the LOS. Malaria and dengue fever are a couple of problems most would like to avoid I'd hazard to guess. Somehow I prefer the mossie though! :-)

Cent

[racha]

So, you didn't have an adverse reaction to the Ta Carp bites I'm taking it? Was the bite as painful as I've heard? I'm hoping to avoid finding out myself personally, :-) but once the damned things were brought to my attention I started noticing they are quite prevelent all around the countryside aren't they? I see them quite a bit in the village, and usually in the hong nam, or near water anyway. Centipedes are a water bug mostly from what I've seen in the states. But turning over a largish stone in a field or the woods around here in Massachusetts will usually find you one too. A friend over on asfo was telling me he was bit a few times after showering and putting his jeans back on. Said it was a pretty small one though that crawled out of his pants, and he said it did hurt like a bitch even then.

 

Bit by a scorpion too! Damn. What part of the country was this? Where was it that you put your hand on it?

 

BTW, have you ever seen the slow moving big fat dark brown ones, the ones with about a million legs it seems? (Centipede) I saw one once walking through the kitchen. The damned thing was HUGE! The wife said they have a nasty bite too, though they move veeeeeeerrrrrryyyy slowly.

---

Hi Cent,

I had no reaction myself only lots of pain, The bigger ones hurt the most, really very intense pain for an hour or so, I have seen other people that where bitten get really bad swelling around the bite, I was bitten by the Centipede on an island off Phuket and by the scorpion as well, I was bitten by the scorpion on the hand as I put my hand on top of the water tank and it was under my hand and bit me in self defense, You are right they like to live in bricks,rocks, concrete that are damp or wet,

 

That other Centipede the big brown one, (GingGur) if its the one you mean that curls up in a ball if you touch it, that one does not bite but Thai's do not like them as the say they are dirty creatures, I have heard some Thai people say they smell apparently from there piss but not sure if that's just a story or not,

[Pescator]

I don`t mean to be nitpicking here but my understanding is that The GingGue is a millipede not a centipede?

 

 

Cheers

Hua Nguu

 

 

[racha]

Its not nit picking thanks for the input, You are right, The Colorful Centipede (Ta Carp) is the one with the poison and the brown colored Millipede (GingGur) is the non poisonous one that curls in the ball,

 

I recall a few Dutch people told me this a while ago as well, they where calling them hundred legs and thousand legs, Before they told me that I thought they where all called centipedes,

[Pescator]

By the way I`ve seen shows performed with these critters in Bangkok and they have those in Samui as well. A thai guy would let them crawl all over him and provoke them to bite him so that the blood would flow and quite a lot of it too.

Just wondered if they somehow had their venemous glands removed.

By the way I recall that my wife claimed that after biting they would piss on the wound if they got the chance to inflict more pain.

 

Cheers

Hua Nguu

 

[Pescator]

Hi Cent,

 

Very nice read.

 

I can relate to your sentiments towards the isarn critters.

When my son was a baby we lived in this rural Isarn village in Sakon Nakhon.

At that time he couldn`t walk only crawl which he did with great enthusiasm. Most thing he would encounter on his way he would put into his mouth to check out whether it was edible or not.

The house we lived in was built on stilts like most are in this area and after dark the entire family gathered below the house to prepare the evening meal, have a chat, a smoke etc.

My son would be all over the place even in some dark corners better left alone.

One evening he removed a flowerpot standing upside down and out came this huge centipede. I had at that time never seen one of those critters before and didn`t know what it could do, but my sister-in-law stood next by preparing the evening meal with a meat cleaver in her hand. Before I could react she chopped the centipede into 15 identical pieces. Without an expression on her face she held one of the pieces in front of me and said laconically: "Andaraay". I didn`t question that!

 

In the "kitchen" of the house there is a small water outlet to dispose of the dishwater etc. To prevent anything coming in from the outside there is yet another flowerpot - yes, a very versatile tool it appears - placed over this small outlet. It would seem that my baby son had a real passion for flowerpots because a couple of days later he turned that one over too only to reveal a big shiny black scorpion. Somehow he must have sensed it was dangerous, because he didn`t touch it, just got out of it`s way.

 

Somehow I am not surprised that the infant mortality rate in Thailand is higher than in Europe.

 

Cheers

Hua Nguu

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

Hua Nguu,

 

Hmmmmm. I've seen the scorpion Queen show before. And noticed under her sheer shirt/pants numerous bandages where I assumed the damned things stung her while doing a show. I wonder how they "drain" the venom of the centipedes before using them in a show. The snake/snake dance shows here in the states usually use snakes that have been milked of their venom earlier before the shows. It doesn't sound like a job I'd care to do!

 

Anyone here on the board hear/know if the scorpion Queen or these centipede wranglers have a trick they use to reduce the venom potency or sting pain, whatever, for this?

 

Cent

[Central Scrutinizer]

Hua Nguu,

 

Yeah. I imagine it would be a lot worse for a toddler or elderly person to be bit by one of these bugs.

 

My house was built as a cottage style, all one floor, not on stilts, and not of wood, but of concrete and block. I've been in plenty of the stilt style homes before and know exactly what you are talking of here. Basically the "under the house" common gathering area is open to whatever wants to slither, crawl, fly, hop, skitter, jump, or walk into the "room". Not a good area for a baby to crawl around exactly! :-)

 

Thanks for sharing your experiences and "anecdotes" Hua Nguu. This is the type of stuff I like to read about from you guys who have lived there and/or spent some time in your own lady's village. Let's me see the differences and similarities as to what I have been seeing and experiencing in our village.

 

Thanks btw. Glad you enjoyed the story. Where is the village (approx.) that your lady was from? Mine's an hour outside of Surin, about a 25 minute drive from the Cambo border.

 

Cent