Joe Louis amuses himself with spiders

 

On the second night of the three day trek from Kalaw to Inle Lake we stayed in a very small village. People in the village work hard all day in rice fields and go to sleep shortly after sunset, which was around 6-7PM in November. There wasn’t much in terms of entertainment – no internet, TV, or even radio. Children ran around outside in the afternoon, but were brought in early in time for dinner. My fellow hikers and I had some time to kill before dinner would be ready so we walked around and appreciated the nature around us.

At the edge of the village were a grouping of trees covered in spider webs. It seemed like a scene out of Lord of the Rings with a giant spider lurking inside. We watched as a small spider caught a fly in its web. Looks like he was also getting ready for dinner. My hiking partners were not very fond of spiders, so we eventually gave up on our Discover Channel substitute and went back to the shack where we were staying.

As we prepped our beds (i.e. blankets and a pillow), my friends noticed a large spider in the rafters above them. Scared, they decided to switch their sleeping location to the other side of the room. As they placed their pillows back down, they spotted another large spider on the other side of the rafters. They were not happy.

We tried explaining to our host about the spiders. The old woman did not know English, but got the gyst of it from the pantomine charades being put on for her. I saw the aha! light bulb go off in her eyes and she just started laughing and then casually waved her hand at us as if to say, “Please, don’t be a bunch of foreign wimps.” So the beds were pushed to the center of the room, and my two British friends slept with one eye open apiece.