Our Pet Snake

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We’ve had our fair share of “pets” in our rooms over our years of travel - big hairy spiders, flying cockroaches, rats, and even a scorpion - but we’d never before had a snake, until Kapas. But I’ll come to that later. For now, I’ll start at the beginning.







The island of Palau Kapas is a little Island just a 15 minute boat ride from the mainland, but a world away. It’s somewhere Scott and I have both visited in the past, but in our BK (before kids) days, when travel was a lot simpler. It consists of a string of white sand beaches backed by swaying palms and dense jungle, interconnected by a series of concrete walkways, each beach a little quieter than the one before. The ocean is clear and many of the beaches have a decent reef right offshore. While it is undeniably an island paradise, we found there to be a lack of infrastructure, making it a difficult place to travel with young children for any length of time.





One of our main challenges was the restaurants, both the food itself and the timing. There was a limited restaurant choice and most didn’t open until 7pm or later. None would serve breakfast in the evening, making it difficult to find food the kids would eat. The restaurant at our accommodation was our best option, and we ended up eating there virtually every night. For the first few days there were a lot of expat families in from Kuala Lumpur and it was basically a fight to get the first order into the kitchen each night. Everyone with young children needed food earlier than the restaurant opened, and the restaurant generally ended up being a complete mad house by 7:30pm, with kids screaming with hunger and fatigue, and forks and spoons being banged on tables, clanging as they hit the floor.





Admittedly, we arrived on the island at a tough time, right in the middle of a long weekend. The beaches were inundated by local tourists arriving by the boatload for a day trip, feeding the fish, walking on the coral, making bonfires on the beach, and leaving garbage. It wasn’t the best first impression, but luckily it was more mellow during the weekdays.





After a few days, the crowds started to leave and we started to figure out the ropes a little. We were careful to get the first order in each evening, but the service was so slow and Kyla is such a slow eater that it made it virtually impossible to get to lights-out before 9pm. Couple that with an early wake up call by the cock-a-doodle-doo of roosters, and it made for some sleep-deprived and cranky kids over time.





When we’d first arrived on the island, Kyla had been going through a beach-rebellion, not wanting to even touch the sand. By day three, we’d made a lot of progress and she even got in and had fun snorkeling with blue spotted rays and Nemo fish. Jake did too and was very excited to see blue coral. One day, we walked to the end of the island, at least as far as we could until we got to a spot where the concrete walkway was collapsed. It was much quieter, more like the old days of Kapas. Another day we took a boat ride to the neighboring tiny Gem Island. It used to have a turtle sanctuary but we learned that it no longer existed. I tried a snorkel off the beach and, while the coral was mostly dead, I was lucky to run into a group of large bumphead parrot fish and a reef shark. Jake and Kyla soon found their favorite spot, though. It was on “beach #3” where several rope swings had been tied to a huge shady tree. They were quite happy playing on their makeshift playground while Scott and I took turns swimming or snorkeling.





Jake had his 4th birthday on the Island. He opened some of his presents at breakfast, and the rest when we did his little celebration in the afternoon. My parents organized for their resort to make a cake and I brought pirate candles and a digger to decorate it. We even had someone from their resort come and sing happy birthday with a guitar.





Things were just settling down (apart from the unavoidable late nights) when a string of misfortunes happened. First there was the snake. One night as we were brushing teeth ready for bedtime, Scott spotted a snake coiled up in a vent in the bathroom. He called to me and I went in, expecting him to be pointing at a pipe in the ceiling. Nope, it was definitely a snake, and a decent size one. We got the kids outside and Scott ran to the restaurant for help while I kept an eye on ol’ snakey. I watched from the corner of the room as he emerged from the vent and started to make his way up to the ceiling. In no time at all, two guys from our resort came in armed with their snake-catching gear; a towel and a stick. By now the snake had slinked back into the vent and disappeared. One of the guys bravely reached in and said it felt like a python. He then proceeded to poke it out with his stick, pulling it out as it clung on tight. Eventually he got it out and wrapped it around his arm, holding the head still. I had just enough time to snap a blurry photo before he took it away to release into the jungle. While not venomous, pythons are constrictors, and he confirmed that the snake could have got into the room at night and strangled the children in their sleep - charming! After that report, I wasted no time in stuffing plastic bags into the vents so that they were shut tight. There was no way I wanted a visit from Mr Python or his friends again!





We also had some health issues. First, we tried to go snorkeling only to be met with lots of stingers/sea lice. We got out of the water but soon noticed that Jake was having an allergic reaction, with welts coming up all over his body. Despite them going down quite quickly with the application of vinegar, Kyla and Jake were both very hesitant to go into the water after that. Then, my mom got sick and had to go to the mainland to see a doctor. A few days later, Kyla got a high fever and we spent the whole next day in the air-conditioned room, giving her Tylenol every four to five hours. Jake and I also had low-grade fevers. We wavered back and forth about whether to leave the island a day earlier than scheduled, and just as we decided to stay, Kyla’s fever spiked to just over 40°C (104°F) and we quickly booked our seats on the next boat, packed up our bags, and headed to Kuala Terranganu on the mainland to be close to medical care. I’ll continue this story in a blog of its own.





One thing we’ve learned is that islands with limited infrastructure just don’t work very well with young children. Kyla and Jake pretty much survived on raw carrots, bread and hard boiled eggs for two weeks. There wasn’t even a minimart for a backup option as there were only two on the island and they both only sold chips/crisps and cookies. The problem now is that we are supposed to be heading to an even tinier island in the Philippines, but if Kyla continues with a high fever, we will need to postpone. But being stuck in Cebu city isn’t appealing. Oh the joys of travel in the tropics!







*** Scroll down for more gorgeous beach photos! ***

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