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Published: June 10th 2017
Geo: 12.6475, 101.636
Since February 20 I have taught preschool at the Thailand English Academy in Laem Mae Phim. It is an international Kindergarten class, housed in a pretty little school that just started up last fall, teaching English classes to Thais and some Scandinavians; the Kindergarten is its newest offering to this mostly Swedish community.
I live about two miles from the school, and bicycle to work each morning. It is a wonderful way to start each day! The title of this blog is actually incorrect, as I saw the herd of water buffalo on my way home from school, but it sounded better than "Water Buffalo on the Way Home From School." It was the same experience.
I often see birds, squirrels, dogs; I always see dogs, one who snarls as I pass by his house and sometimes tries to catch up with my bike. (I don't like that dog.) But today I saw off in the lily pads, a whole herd of water buffalo; I slowed down to look more carefully. By the time I got home I started questioning what I had seen, and so asked Goong, a friend and neighbor, if water buffalo frequented this area. Oh yes! Sometimes they came very near to her yard, but usually not in this season. So that is what my commute is like: bicycling past a peaceful herd of water buffalo, listening to birdsong, riding under the most beautiful tree canopies, seeing stunning bushes of flowers, vibrant colors everywhere. It is a delight for the senses.
Many other animals live here too, many many more than humans. I have seen tons of snakes, mostly dead, mostly run over by cars and trucks, I am not sad to say. One day I was walking to my daily ocean swim, completely lost in thought, and I heard a voice come out of nowhere, saying, "Laura! Be careful!" I looked around, wondering who was calling me, saw my friend Goong on her motorbike, and then started looking for a car driving on the wrong side of the road (a very common occurrence anywhere in SE Asia), when she yelled the same thing again, this time accompanied by, "Snake!" I looked behind me, nothing; I finally looked down at the road in front of me, and there it was, maybe two meters long, totally green blending in with the grass, sidewinding along the road very close to me. I don't know what would have happened if Goong had not been driving by just at that point, but when I finally saw the snake, I quickly stepped backwards and let it slide away into the underbrush. Like moose blending into the Maine forests, this snake was no longer visible, no longer there, but now I was again made aware to watch where I walked. Lucky encounter!
Other animals that live here are the friendly geckos, frogs of all kinds, lizards, more insects that could ever be counted or named, a few cats, one tarantula (dead, and that was on a trail in Cambodia), cows, pigs, sheep, llamas, and many I don't know the names of, plus, of course, water buffalo. I have yet to see any wild cats, but I don't doubt that they live here too; there is so much jungle-type overgrowth. And, in the ocean, are other animals I don't care to meet, such as the jelly-fish. I did see one dead one, stripped of its tentacles, lying on one of the beaches I frequent, so I know they are there. Another thing to watch for.
So each day when I bike home, I am not quite sure exactly what I will see. I will look out for the mean dog, and hope the water buffalo are back in the ponds, and see which trees are in bloom, which flowers have already fallen to the ground. This world here is a daily eye-opening education and delight, warm, lush, full of beauty as well as potential danger.
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lailasa
non-member comment
ahh a snake!!! I would be so scared :) Sounds like an interesting area though!