Critters

I'll get the ugly out of the way first:

Think you know your critters?  These guys show up at night on the streets.  They have hairy legs, and LONG antennae.  They seem to be able to almost fly sometimes, but maybe only for short periods.  They're almost the length of a playing card from the back of their hind legs to the tips of their antennae.  They're super fast and can climb up through your drain.  

Any guesses?  If I had to say one bad thing about living in Thailand, it would be that I have to deal with these guys.

I've caught 4 in hotel rooms that I've stayed at (none in my apartment so far though, thankfully).

Now for some cooler ones!:

Bats:

Cambodia has a lot of bats.  They fly around the lamp posts at night.  During the day I managed to get some good pics of these guys in Phnom Pehn.

Giant snails:

I've seen a few of these, this was one of the biggest with the shell being almost the size of my fist.

Giant fly:

I've only seen one of these.. Minus the wings it was about the size of my thumb.  Looking past the fact that its size was fairly horrific, it was a beautiful insect!

Praying Mantis!!:

So cool.  I never thought I'd get to see one of these guys in real life.  It was way bigger than I expected one would be (probably almost 6 inches long).  Its movements were so un-insectlike.  It moved about timidly, as though each limb had a very expensive glove on it.  

 

And to make things more interesting, I also got to watch a stand-off between a praying mantis and a gecko!  After watching for a good 2 or 3 minutes, the gecko got spooked and ran away.

Speaking of geckos -  I was super excited about them for the first week or so of my trip, before I realized that they're absolutely everywhere!

I mostly see them on the walls of apartments, etc at night, but I've had a few in my apartment. 

 

Most of them are about 4 or 5 inches long, but my most recent visitor was just a baby.  No longer than 2 inches.  Adorable.