Donna said, “I know what is for lunch!” We had been making big pots of vegetable soup, but in light of the fact we had come to the end of this pot, our dilemma was, what to have? Donna had, of course, come up with the answer, “Bratwurst and sauerkraut!” This suggestion sounded good to me, and we set to make it happen. She got the brats and the baguettes out of the freezer to thaw. I retrieved a can of sauerkraut from the pantry and, in the meantime, went about doing little chores around the house and checking emails, etc.
Cooking the Brats
Soon it was time to start the cooking as Donna chopped up some onion to sauté. She added the sauerkraut mixing it all up in the pan. She put the sauerkraut and onion mix into a bowl and started cooking up the bratwursts. I cut the baguette in half, lightly toasting it as the brats completed. Wiping the table on the porch with a rag after spraying it with some water cleaned the dust off. Then I went to dump a bucket of food remnants into the river. That’s fish food!
Tawan was building our “carport,” As a result, everything was a little dustier than usual. On the way back to the house, I stopped to check his progress. He was also breaking for lunch and would be back shortly.
O M G ! No!!!
Donna called me in and told me to finish making my plate up as she took her plate out to the table. She then returned to the kitchen to get water. I was putting some mustard on my half of the baguette when I heard her exclaim from the table, “Oh my god, I can’t f#@*ing believe it!”
“What is it?” I called back to her from the kitchen.
“You have to come to see this! It is beyond words!”
I ran out to see an awful sight. Some creature, we suspected a gecko, spewed some nasty white substance all over Donna’s plate of food, splashing the table, chairs, and onto the floor. It was a perfect shot. It was gross! This excretion had also occurred a few days earlier on the porch floor.
We set to cleaning it all up. Donna threw her plate of food away. I split mine with her and the extra brat she had fried up.
We kept an eye on the rafters throughout the meal from which the creature had emitted this horrible excrement. The fear was that it could douse us next.
What to do?
In the following days, we kept an eye out for the culprit and researched how to get rid of this menace. A mix of 1/1/1 dish soap, vinegar, and water sprayed in the area would theoretically keep a gecko from hanging out in that spot. So we made plans to do that after we finished some other work.
Today we made a big batch of vegetable soup. I cleaned off the table, and we prepared to go outside. As Donna approached the table, well, you know what happened. Yes, our ‘visitor’ had already doused the table and chairs! Fortunately, we had not arrived yet and missed the show. Again, we cleaned up the mess, always keeping an eye on the porch’s rafters.
This time Donna made up the solution, and I climbed the ladder and began spraying the rafters and the hidden areas above. Seeing something move, I said, “There it is!” I sprayed, and it moved away more. Finally, it turned itself around, and I could see that it was not a gecko through the cracks. It was a snake! Spraying it repeatedly, and under those circumstances, the snake left.
Photograph the culprit
Laos has a wide variety of snakes, from relatively harmless to ‘that one will kill you, quick.’ We couldn’t get a good view of it, but I kept spaying it with the solution. It didn’t like it and kept moving away. That suited me fine! The snake continued off the roof and slithered into a tree. I continued to spray all potential surfaces that the snake would care to return. We cleaned up and had lunch.
Donna asked where the snake went, and I told her it went off the rafters and into the tree. She looked at the tree and spotted it right away!
“Go get the good camera,” she exclaimed! So, I did while she kept her eye on it, in case it moved.
She zoomed in on it and took a picture of it lounging comfortably on a branch. We couldn’t see the head as we thought it was behind a tree branch, so I took the camera and went around the tree to get another shot. I could see that the head was behind the tree’s trunk on the other end than we thought. I zoomed in and took several photos before getting a clear image.
Donna then Googled Laos snakes and searched the images until she found a perfect match, identifying our messy guest.
Identification
It is a Chrysopelea ornata known as a “Golden Tree Snake.” Moderately poisonous to small animals such as rats and geckos. Not a threat to us, except for pissing everywhere and in our food! It slithered down to the lowest branch and hung out next to an orchid. I went over to see it closer, and it slowly made its way back up the tree trunk. As I turned away for a second, it quickly disappeared. I could not find it in the tree anywhere.
We are keeping an eye on the ceiling in hopes of never seeing it again!
