On Sunday after we got home from church I was carrying things in from the truck when I noticed a 2 ft. black snake behind our shoe shelf (just to the side of our open front door).  Our dog Emperor was just 4 feet away laying on the drive way but he apparently didn’t notice the snake.

I told Pook to watch it as I went around the house to get a long pole to hit it with.  As I was getting the pole the snake went across our driveway and under a big piece of wood we had sitting in our garden.  While I was trying to figure out where the snake was hiding some people who regularly clean our yard were cleaning the yard next door.  They asked if it was a snake and the lady had her husband come over to help kill it.

We sprayed bug spray all over the wood to try to get the snake to come out, but we didn’t see it.  They turned over the wood but we still didn’t see it and we were starting to wonder if the snake had already left.

We told them to go ahead and push the wood out to the street and while they were doing that he spotted it inside of a hole in the middle of the wood.  He poked it until it dropped out onto the driveway and then it raised its head and opened its hood – definitely a cobra.  A few hits later and it was dead.

We’re not sure if the snake lived in that hole or if it was just using it as a place to rest and digest its recent food.  Lalita often plays in the dirt right next to that piece of wood.  We’re thanking God that we safely spotted the snake and that it wasn’t Lalita or our dog who found it.

This is the third cobra we have found in our yard (in addition to 4 or so other snakes).  We’re doing our best to get rid of any possible hiding spots around our house.  I didn’t know that piece of wood had holes in the middle of it – it will not be returning to our garden!

Posted under Life in Thailand on August 17th, 2010 by phil
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Yesterday we got cheated. When I came downstairs yesterday morning there was a strong sewer smell. All of the houses in our neighborhood have their own sewer tanks installed in the ground. When they get full you have to pay someone to come pump them out – we’re already familiar with this as we had to pump our two tanks only two months after moving in to this house.

So there was a noticeable smell and I wondered if our tanks were already full again. About 15 minutes later someone comes around to our house and asks if we need our tanks pumped. I thought to myself, “this is very fortuitous timing.” I ask the guy to come check and we open up both tanks and see that both of them are full to the top.

At this point I began trying to negotiate the price for pumping the tanks. The crew didn’t want to give any firm numbers (fairly common in Thailand) but they said it shouldn’t be too much. We’ve heard of some of these sewer guys ripping you off, so we thought we would protect ourselves and made a verbal agreement with the crew that they would only pump 1000 Baht worth ($32). He said it is hard to know how much you have pumped but he said they would stop the truck and check it after pumping only part of the tank. That sounded good enough for me as I could see that the tanks were nearly full.

Not 10 minutes later one guy knocks on the door and said they finished pumping the whole tank. At this point we looked at each other and said, “oh no.” They walked us over to the truck and counted up our total – 3800 Baht ($123). I proceeded to tell them that I felt like I was getting cheated because we had agreed that they would only pump part of the tank and let us check the total. He began concocting a tale about how the pump couldn’t be turned off very easily and how our two sewer tanks are actually connected and they were able to pump both from the one tank. I was skeptical and went over to take a look in the second tank but another one of his crew had already closed it up and told me it was empty. It’s kind of a pain to open it up so I didn’t bother pushing him (although in retrospect I should have).

We tried to show our displeasure and I pointed out a few of his contradictions but in the end we just paid them the money – he had lowered it to 3500 Baht ($113). We know they scammed us as a tank our size probably shouldn’t cost more than $48, but we had to choose between fighting with them and possibly making some enemies, or just giving in. We decided it wasn’t worth the risk. As an aside, there was news a few weeks ago that a local politician was gunned down and murdered along the main rode in front of our neighborhood.

In hindsight we should have watched them closer and confirmed how much the truck was actually pumping (or just avoided doing business with them altogether). It is frustrating to be taken advantage of when we gave them a little bit of trust, but “live and learn” as they say. After they left I decided to open up the second tank and take a look. It was still full to the top. So now we have to pay someone else to come pump our second tank. Experiences like this remind me that I’m not living in America anymore…

Posted under Life in Thailand on May 5th, 2008 by phil
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