It's Bohemian

I woke up in the middle of the night to a scratching noise scraping across the tin roof of our bungalow. I was terrified immediately, unsure what it was but having seen the huge five foot lizards on the island. I didn't like it being so close, even with the separation of metal between us, and sat staring into pitch black darkness hoping that the lizard or snake or rat wouldn't find it's way into the room.

When I first woke, the noise was at the far end of the room. I heard the tapping-then-scraping claws along the metal as it slide forward a step then stopped; then moved again five seconds later, the movement prolonging the second, then stopped, only to move again…the pattern was fairly consistent, though off beat, making it even more terrorizing. The noise was making its way closer and closer, and I was certain I would be face to face with a Monitor Lizard within minutes, me trapped within my mosquito net while it charged at me from out of the darkness.

The noise eventually stopped and I fell back to sleep.

In the morning, what remained of my chocolate cream Oreo's from the night before were gone. Whatever had been sliding across our rooftop was actually in our room, sliding across the shelf that ran the length of my bed. It was within inches of me, but in the morning heat the thought of it was more curious than terrifying.

The sun is pretty intense on the Perhentian Islands. We stayed on the smaller of the two, having been told that the larger island has the more expensive resorts. Fifty Ringgit seems a little steep for the standard of room we received, but the island is among the most beautiful I have ever seen. It's primitive, with no roads on the island and only a path (that often is no more than a small clearing of brush) winding through the dense forest from one beach to another. I ate breakfast, which was wonderful but more pricy than the three or four Ringgit meals we sought out on the mainland, then walked into the South China Sea, literally. The water is crystal clear, and as you walk out twenty feet, the water reaching your hips, you see the soft sandy floor under your feet. Keep walking…thirty feet…forty feet…you eventually have to swim, but even then when the water is at least 15 feet deep, you see the sea floor clearly, with a colorful coral garden beneath as hundreds of fish swim around you and often to you in curiosity.

I cam out of the water and bathed in the run, then decided to take a nap. It was mid-afternoon; I figured an hour out of the sun and then I might go swim again, maybe snorkel this time in hopes of seeing some sharks or turtles. The scraping noise came again…

I jumped to a sitting position immediately and started looking around as quickly as I could, ready to fight off whatever was in our bungalow. Having daylight to assist me this time, I saw it across the room, inside the mosquito net of the other bed, propped up on a pillow, it's head tilted in my direction, it's tongue slithering in and out of it's closed mouth. A three foot lizard stood staring at me, both of us motionless. I imagine that the expression on my face was the polar opposite of the expressionless face it bore, and it didn't even occur to me that it was scared of me. That's something you talk about when you talk about things that can harm you. Sharks, snakes, spiders - they're more scared of you than you are of them. Well, try to remember that when you have a dinosaur in your bed!

I had no idea what to do. I sat for a moment, contemplating how I would get out without being attacked, knowing I needed to make the first move rather than having to react to it lunging at me. Yup, I thought about being the attacker and throwing the first punch. Way to aggravate a situation James! The alternative was an image of me running and hopping around the room like a dancing leprechaun, jumping between beds, hoping on one foot with the other raised as high as my face, arms flailing as  it chased me around a small bungalow, knowing I would find the door eventually and go scurrying across the sand and into the water as far as I could swim, only to realize I was now surrounded by sharks. Options...

I got out from under the mosquito net and charged at it, knowing I had another net between us as protection. The giant lizard leaped back, flying into the wall behind it in a loud thud, and disappeared behind the bed. That thus was loud! which meant that this freaking' thing is pure muscle, and a heavy scaly mass of muscle at that. I wasn't going to wait around to see how this dual would end. I was going to run for it.

I went to tell the people who ran the bungalow, and they kept asking "gecko?" Don't you guys see my face? Don't you see how excited I am about the monster that I witnessed on my bed? No, NOT a gecko! This little stain on my shorts was not a result of n insurance company mascot. This was T-Rex's second cousin twice removed coming bcd from extinction to eat us all! I wanted to assure them. This is a bloody monster! Now would you please go and risk your life to get it out while I stand safely in the distance, close enough to watch with all the other tourists?

One of the guys grabs a huge stick with a metal piece attached to the end (no idea what it's really used for but it could cause some serious damage) and leads the way back to our bungalow. At this point, four or five other groups from neighboring bungalows are watching. I unlock the door (a tiny padlock that you could break by looking at it the wrong way) and scan the room for the beast as I step back to make room for the dinosaur hunter. There it is, about two feet in front of us, trapped inside the mosquito net. It thrashed violently, trying to escape. It was panicking, which is not a good thing, because no one is going to act rationally when cornered. I don't know the extent of a lizards rationality in a normal situation, but I wasn't going to be in the way of it's inch long razor sharp claws in this situation. In an instant the lizard finds it's way out from under the net; I jump back screaming (manly profanities to show I'm not really scared) and once my eyes gain focus again, I see the lizard about five feet up a coconut tree outside of out bungalow. The man starts slapping the trunk with his stick, moving around the tree to follow the lizard who simply doesn't want to get a beat down. He makes contact with the lizard at last, who drops onto our neighbors bungalow roof in a loud, hollow thud, slides down and slams to the floor and bolts. Someone said they saw it running into the forest, most likely to tell it's parents what we had done to it. I was certain I was going to see my Oreo's again tonight on the inside of some giant lizard.

What? Only a baby? Yes, this ginormous lizard was only a baby, the giggling bungalow manager kept assuring us as if it would make us feel better about the situation. He didn't realize that all it meant was that larger ones existed, but we already knew that. We had seen them blocking the path to one of the bathrooms the day before.

The islands of Malaysia are exciting places. I find Malaysia to be more beautiful than Thailand. It is not as developed for tourism, but the landscape itself can't be beat. Having had a close encounter with a dinosaur, we decided we should go snorkeling in search of sharks, and that's just what we did.

There were four of us, swimming out cautiously at first, then forgetting about the sharks, certain that we were not going to see them. You tend to forget about things when you're out in the ocean looking at an underwater world that's both mysterious and beautiful. So many colors - so much movement. Color in yellow and pink and blue and orange and white create a terrain with as many dimensions as colors. Large shells with what looks like tie-died muscles clamp onto rocks; sea anemones sway beneath the water - you dive down and come close - clone fish start coming out as if to guard their territory, swimming right up to your mask to show you who owns the block. Rainbow colors fish chomp audibly on algea; zebra striped fish start following you around; you turn and there is a long barracuda looking fish with sap teeth staring at you (harmless, I'm sure, but you're in the middle of an unknown world). I swam deeper, hoping to see a shark. I turned, and I saw it, maybe fifteen feet from me, and the moment I spotted it, it turned to face me. My heart skipped a beat.I'll tell that story next...