When you travel around any country, especially a country with a different climate than your own, you will encounter many new animals. These animals, though mundane to the locals, can be exciting to see for any tourist. We stayed in Koh Phangan for a month, and saw a few new animals living on this island.
One of our first animal encounters was with a neighbour’s cat. This cat wasn’t interested in us at all, and wasn’t after any kind of food or contact. It just wandered into our bungalow, sniffed around for a bit, and left. It felt like a cat-equivalent of a nosy neighbour.
Being in a tropical country, we would have a lot of geckos wandering in or out of our home. This isn’t my first time seeing a gecko, of course. But it’s the first time I’ve seen so many, and so much variety in their size and colours. These awesome little guys are harmless to humans and like to eat all those annoying flies and insects that could infest your home.
One morning I went out to our balcony to find a cat had decided it was the best place to sleep. This one was pretty friendly, but mostly didn’t want to be bothered.
Spotted a small grasshopper jumping around the trees around our bungalow. I managed to get a couple of half-decent pictures with my camera.
Caught this lizard on a hike up to a waterfall with very little water. I don’t think it’s a skink, but maybe some kind of agama or grass lizard. I’m not an expert on lizards, but it’s still cool to see these things.
Another lizard we spotted was just outside our bungalow running through the foliage. I’m pretty sure this one is a skink, maybe a long-tailed sun skink.
Cats may not be the most exciting of animals to see since they are everywhere. But this young cat we encountered at a nearby food market just wanted to play.
When we hike we would often encounter dogs that didn’t like us walking through their territory. They were always more bark than bite. This time we encountered two dogs. One was aggressively barking, while its friend just wanted to be petted.
Finally, as we were about to leave I needed a new suitcase. The chickens that our neighbour kept seemed to like the smell of the new suitcase. Unfortunately I had to clean chicken “leavings” out of it the next day. I should have closed it before I went to bed…
This isn’t every animal I encountered on the island, but it’s all the animals I managed to get pictures of. An honourable mention goes to the huntsman spider that sat in our bathroom for over a day. We were a little worried at first, but apparently these big spiders are completely harmless if you leave them be.
