Room Check Please

I don’t like snakes.  Plain and simple.  None.  Not even rubber snakes.  This week I read of a woman who woke up in her hotel room to find a garden snake on her arm.  At first thinking it was her husband she suddenly remembered he was not there; and opened her eyes to the surprise of her life.  She jumped up flinging the serpent across the room.  Read of her ordeal here.  Now I can’t begin to tell you what my reaction would have been.  Surely some screaming and hollering, then beating the life out of that snake.

Don’t call animal rights activists for me just yet, I actually do like animals but not that close.  It is my practice to thoroughly check my hotel room before settling down for a good night’s sleep.  I look under the bed and peel back the covers for anything that may be lurking in the dark areas, also I check behind picture frames and vanities for large holes where small animals can hide or for hidden cameras.  These things have been known to happen and I do not want to be a victim.  I also do the mirror test again for any spying activity but that’s a different post for another time.

To do a quick search of the room only takes a few minutes.   It helps to put my mind at ease.  To eliminate the possibility that there may be unwanted intruders from the animal kingdom such as centipedes, lizards, millipedes, roaches, spiders, scorpions, etc. is paramount to me enjoying a restful sleep in a relax environment.  Now, you may think I’m being a bit over the top, paranoid, or even influenced by too much television, but the fact of the matter is I prefer that all creatures remain in their natural habitats and not venture into mine.

I can still recall with trepidation the anxiety and fears I felt while visiting a boarding school/orphanage in Cambodia.  After a tour of the school and the orphanage’s living quarters, I sat down with my host at a picnic table under a tree with large shady branches, to eat the meal they prepared for me.  A few of the children would wander in an out of the space.  Some with quizzical looks on their faces.  Of course, our conversation was about life on the compound.  Among other things, I learned that the host’s pet dog became blind because of an attack from a spitting viper found under their bed, and at one time while eating at the same picnic table a snake dropped unceremoniously down from the branches.  Everyone scattered.  I don’t think those stories were told to frighten me.  The host was just recounting a day in their life of always expecting the unexpected.  However, my reaction was to immediately scan the tree and nearby shrubbery for snakes.  Needless to say, I was wary from that moment on.

Community Peeps, you may recall in a previous post (check the blog archives) how I talked of my ordeal in Trinidad and Tobago and my encounter with a few geckos in the room.  How my companion and I spent the entire night watching the geckos on the ceiling to make sure they didn’t fall on us (we had never seen geckos before).  We didn’t sleep a wink but kept the lights on the whole time.   Come to think of it, the geckos were probably more scared of us than we were of them 😁😁.   What has been your experience with any unwelcome room occupants other than your pet?  Please tell of the experience, good or bad, in the comment box below.

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