Lizard in the Toilet and Other Surprises

Loner Man Who Hangs Around the Guest House

Mr. Gecko lizard in my toilet!

There are surprises every day here in Chandigarh, so I thought this would be a time to share some of them with you. Last night I went to sit on the bathroom throne and out of the corner of my eye, I thought I saw movement, something I don't think I've ever seen before unless under the influence of some prohibited substance. I took a closer look at there was a 7" Gecko lizard staring at me from the side of the bowl. We just kinda stared at each other a minute- at least long enough for me to get a picture of him. I took my roomate's toothbrush, something I am sure she will appreciate, and poked him.

He played dead, even though his eye was blinking at me. I found out later when faced with a larger predator, they will play dead. So I just picked up the lid and told him to get the hell out of my bowl, and he must have realized my next move would be to pick him up by the tail and fling him into my roomate's bed,so he left.

I'm sure he was after the leftover Daal (crappy looking lentil stuff) that I stopped eating about a week ago. Even the feral dogs turn up their noses at it.

Loner Man

Loner Man behind our Guest House

This is Loner Man, who hangs around our Guest House. We started seeing him the first week we were at the guest house and now, we kind of know his patterns, though he is cagey, and we are careful to keep a safe distance from him.

We were told there is a troupe of about 15 monkeys who live in the park. This one, however, stays separate from the troupe, though we did see him with at least one other monkey in the last few days, so no one knows for sure.

I usually see him around 7am when I go outside for

 my first cup of coffee. He is hanging on the roof at the corner overlooking the courtyard, just scoping out who is in the courtyard. He always has this same look on his face - warily conscious of everything around him. He usually walks the walls and when we walk the walls, we see his "deposits" on the wall tops as well.



Then there are the wonderful birds who speak to us all day long. Here are some of them we see on a regular basis right outside our front door:

This is one of the long-tailed parrots that fly around all day long and perch in the trees in front of the guest house. In particular, there is a pair of them that hang around together and spend time every morning looking for insects or something inside a knot hole in the tree in front of the deck.

The parrot pair with the lower one looking into the tree knot hole.

Don't know the name of this one, but he also hangs out with his buddies around our house.

And of course there are the peacocks, which are plentiful and quite vocal. They have a sound kind of like a baby or cat crying and it still is hard for me to get used to. They wander into the courtyard around 8am, because there is a local woman who leaves food for them.

male peacock in our courtyard

We also have beautiful pilated wood peckers, red and yellow finches,herons, hawks, doves,large black birds and more - I just haven't been in the right place at the right time to capture them.

Well, that's it for now.Keep those notes coming in so we know you still miss us!
j