Place: Nias Island, Indonesia
Circumstances: My friend DB and I were 7-months into our 18-month endless summer surf trip around the globe. We’re spending 2-months on this remote island off of Sumatra that is home to Lagundri Bay, an internationally famous right reef break. We were staying right on the bay in a lossman. Ours was a studio-style thatch bungalow on stilts with a big porch and bathroom off the back. Inside the room were two twin beds draped with mosquito nets and a nightstand. Our lossman was 50 yards off the water and cost $0.25 per night.
It was owned by a beautiful family: Grandma, Mom, Dad, 3 Sons and 2 Daughters. Grandma was the masseur. Mom was the master chef. Dad was mr. Fix-it. The eldest son, Daniel, was the local surf guru and spoke the most English. When the younger kids were not in school they were always having fun: climbing papaya trees, messing with the chickens or laughing at my big feet when we played hackey sack.
During the earthquakes & subsequent tsunamis near Sumatra in December 2004 and March 2005 Nias sustained devastating loss. My heart goes out to all of the amazing, lovely, generous people I met and their families. I’m thankful to surfing for directing my curiosity to visit such far away lands and broaden my human awareness.
The following excerpt is from a journal I kept on the island:
This lived in our bathroom! Our bathroom was a 4’x 15’ tile-floored room that sat three steps down off the back of our lossman. It was equipped with table, toilet, spicket & bucket. The bucket was huge and filled with water that we would scoop out to flush the toilet. We were fortunate to have our own running water and toilet connected to our in the lossman!
Every night I have to trek to the bathroom at least a couple times. A couple days into our stay here I noticed a long speedy thing going across the floor. I’m generally fond of bugs but this one had a particularly unnerving look about it & moved way too fast. Still, I yelled to DB and we admired it.
As I had to use the bathroom and I didn’t want it to crawl on me I’d always take the flashlight with me The thing didn’t seem too interested in me. It just seemed to zoom around the floor all night….only at night!
After a couple weeks I noticed it had gotten bigger. I have no idea what it ate in there but it was bigger. When I mentioned this to DB he thought it absurd that I could notice an increase in size in that short time. I knew it was bigger but still thought…”huh, maybe he’s right.”
By this point we had been referring to the creature rather amiably as the “The Pit Monster”.
Well, that night I found myself on the usual midnight run….only this time I had some solid business to tend. Sitting down wasn’t as easy with a flashlight because when I’d look one way the other way would be in total blackness. I quickly found the Monster cruising along the nearby wall to my left & it indeed didn’t look that big. I watched it cruise in front of me seemingly investigating my feet which I promptly lifted! As it went under the table I lost sight of it but saw some movement on top of the table. A quick flashlight adjustment revealed the secret to the growth…….there was another one……a BIGGER one!
Now I had to track both of these Monsters with my one beam of light. Luckily, the tabletop Monster didn’t seem interested in coming to the floor. I was following the smaller dude around the floor & periodically(quite often!) checking the table, too. I watched as it passed my feet again disappearing behind the bucket. The next thing to happen was a Stephen King creation. As I kept the light on the bucket to make sure there would be no sneak attacks I saw something straight out of a nightmare.
Slowly making its way from behind the bucket was a Pit Monster over twice as big as the Bigger Monster! I was in awe! 3 of them……the 3rd one being more of a snake with legs than a bug! …..and me with a beam of light and my pants down!
I remained calm because one was still on the table & the Biggest Monster was a slow mover. I watched them for a while & then returned to bed having to bite my tongue to keep from waking DB with the news!
For the next few days I did my best to hold-it during the night but still found myself on full alert peeing with 3 Monsters. The Biggest one disappeared after 2 days so I was left to deal with the two Little ones. I saw them more like caterpillars now after having seen the potential. Most of the fear was now directed towards the Big one. Nevertheless I still did not want them to crawl on me but was much less cautious.
After a week I noticed my flashlight beam fading so in the interest of battery conservation I decided it okay to turn off the light once successfully reaching the toilet. Well, on my second night of this heroic method I found myself having a seat once again. Once situated & comfortable I turned off the light. That’s when it happened……. Aaaaghhh!
Something had bitten or stung my ankle. I swatted & jumped up on the toilet in one move. By the time I turned on the light all I saw was a cricket hopping across the floor. I tried momentarily to convince myself that my ankle bracelet had caught my hairs but the pain was far too intense.
The pain came not from a single point but an area the size of an egg was on fire. I saw one drop of blood in the middle and it all started to swell. My rubbing was as soothing as throwing a cup of water on a forest fire.
I scrambled to bed and shakily dowsed the area with peroxide. Inside the darkness of my mosquito net I fantasized myself to sleep with thoughts of the awful things that could happen from the bite of some tropical jungle bug. [a few weeks later I would get Malaria from such a bug….but that’s another story!]
The morning brought good and bad discoveries. The good news was that I had moderate swelling and intense pain which lasted until the following day. The bad news was that we solved the mystery of why we only saw the Pit Monster at night. To our dismay we found the Smallest Monster curled up under the seat of the toilet….not good!
2 days after the attack I was drawing the picture above when our local friend Daniel cruised up. I asked about the creature. His response, “Yeah, I know this, Alifa. Very Dangerous. You see one? Kill it! If it bite you, 2 days no walking! Kill it! But when you try kill it, make sure it die. If not die it will come back to get you. Kill it!” Not exactly the response I was hoping for. He also said the smaller ones weren’t as bad.
Well, that did explain my day of pain. And if my swat pissed it off that also explains the sudden interest in the toilet…..REVENGE!!!
Coming soon: The Hunt!
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