Freaked out by a fruit bat!

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Last night we had a C-R-A-Z-Y fruit bat experience. Fruit bats aka megabats aka flying foxes are HUGE (it's worth checking out the wikipedia article). Their wing span is almost 5 feet (150cm). For real. They are unbelievably cool and unbelievably freaky. We see them every night swooping around street lights and landing in trees. They make really cool (read: scary) high pitched chattering noises and we've had several land in the palm trees just beside our balcony, while we've been hanging out there in the dark. In our experience so far, when they see you see them, they leave. Last night was different...

So we were out on the beach having a BBQ and it got dark (gets dark by 7pm here) and we heard the high-pitched bat chatters and saw three big ones flying up above us. It was a full moon and we were near a street light so we could really see them well. They landed in the tree next to us, hanging over us and we could see them moving around in there and getting comfortable. We were both kinda freaked out but they're not really interested in humans so unless they are acting peculiar, there is no need to be afraid. Oh, and also, it is imperative to immediately wash with soap and water should you ever come into contact with their poo, which is apparently dangerously toxic. Barf.

So anyway, one of the bats decided to get down onto a really low branch and hung upside down FACING US. He hung there for about 20 seconds moving his wings and body around and staring at us and then... I totally freaked out! I just lost it! Haha! I suddenly got an adrenaline rush and got up from the table and started moving really quickly, tipping stuff over and bossing Majeed around to get grabbing our picnic stuff. This obviously freaked Majeed out and he started gathering everything! The bat got scared and flew away but we were already so wired that we just ran!

So we started walking (running) home and were giggling and talking about how freaked out we were all the way home. Then just to spice things up a little more...we come across one of the biggest cockroaches either of us had ever seen! EWWWWWW!!! It was scampering around on the sidewalk, all quickly and in the disgusting fashion roaches move, and then it FLEW. It bloody FLEW and hit a wall with a big gross crunchy slap! I let out a blood curdling scream and it landed back -SLAP!- on the ground and scampered around some more! And then it started flying again. Oh god.

GGGGGGGGRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.

We ran the last few steps to our apartment and got to the door. Before opening it we were both really paranoid that we'd turn on the lights only to discover more digusto roaches or god knows what. Luckily there was nothing in sight. We put down our bags, sat at the table, cracked a beer and Majeed said: "You know, definitely one thing I've come to understand is that I'm just not a tropical guy. On my list of must-do life experiences I'm glad to check off the 'lived in a tropical country' one, but you know, been there and done that! From now on, let's just visit!".

I couldn't agree more! We are super glad to be living this experience and we will also be super glad to put some of these moments behind us!

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Photos

Fruit bat
This one is actually dead. We noticed it hanging for two days in the row before realizing that.

Alarming
Actually, 'alarming' doesn't quite describe how I felt when this guy fell out of the vacuum bag (already dead).

Seriously
Same bug but on it's side with my thumb for a size comparison. It's the same kind as the one in my story except a bit smaller. Ewww.

Comments

[Bruce]

Jurassic Park
Great bug shots - keep 'em coming and I'd love to see some live bat photos!!!