02 December, 2008

The Mouse Incident

Had to tell you a funny story from a few days back...

We took a long-tail speedboat up the River Kwai to our accommodation- a floating hostel on the river. The floating huts swayed in the current, the thin bamboo-covered walls rocked from side to side...In true Thai style, the shower was a hose in the wall located above the toilet. Lacking plumbing, you had to shovel in water from a bucket to push the excrement out. Nick and I finally decided to catch some shut-eye despite the drunken Brits reveling outside our door with beers in hand, feet dangling in the water...the French couple next door enjoying their honeymoon in stereotypical (ho-ho-ho) fashion if you catch my drift... and the residents on the other side of us snoring like freight-trains. I finally lulled myself to sleep but awoke to hear a munch-munch-munch. The sound dissipated and I shrugged off any worry. My eyes closed. "Chomp, munch, crack!" Someone or something, for that matter, was trying to get in through our door. I tapped Nick awake, the crunching got louder. It was coming from under our floor, no, from outside our door. It's as if something was trying to get through our door. Nick flipped on the light but we saw nothing, so he got a flashlight and headed out the backdoor to investigate. I stood a few feet behind the door imagining what kind of creature was gnawing at our door. Either a crocodile or perhaps a mutant rat? I heard Nick say from the outside that he saw nothing. All of a sudden, a hole appeared inside the door. Two small illuminated eyes peeked out and out came a nose. It was a mouse- obviously on steroids- as it just ate through our door! Either that or we were right not to drink the local water. There is nothing we could do, clearly the room was his home and this explained the holes all over the walls. He was free to come and go as he pleased. Fortunately, I only heard him scurry across the floor at night but Nick saw him running across our palm-frond braided ceilings as we slept. Cheeky little thing!