You get not one, but TWO toads in your shoes!
In Thailand it is customary to remove your shoes before entering a home. It is also a good practice when staying in a budget guesthouse where you may or may not have cleaning service every day and you are out on the streets every day, tracking around a lot of dirt and grime. So, we once again did like the locals and left our shoes outside our rooms’ doors.
The first perpetrator
One morning, we were getting ready to head out from Sansuko Ville and Suhail was out on the porch, putting on his shoes. All of a sudden I heard the most ungodly noise that I believe has ever escaped his lips.
I rushed outside to find him holding one shoe in his hand and wearing a disturbed look on his face. He initially thought someone had (for an unknown reason) stuffed damp paper towels into his shoe, but upon further inspection, realized there was a living creature inside. Upon further inspection it was the toad at right, who had decided to call Suhail’s shoe home for the night.
Perpetrator #2
We had a good laugh about it and pretty much forgot all about him by the following week when we were leaving Red Snapper, our temporary home on Koh Lanta. I did a final sweep of the room and went to put on my shoes when I got the opportunity to experience the same disturbing sensation that Suhail had a week earlier. My closed toe shoes had been left on the porch overnight and I had to pry the chubby little guy on the right out of them before I could reclaim them as my own!