Toads

In the Western world we are no strangers to those wee invaders in our homes. We have all had spiders, ants, earwigs and heaven forbid a mouse in our house. It is near impossible to keep them out. It doesn't matter if you live in a house, apartment or Condo, you will have something unwanted crawling, slithering or running around in your home. This is to be expected, and we deal with it the best we can.
We have given our 30 days notice to our landlord. You have all heard me talk of spiders. Anyone and everyone who has ever met me is aware that I am terrified of spiders. We have found and killed if possible, many spiders in our house since we arrived in Vietnam. This is not the reason for our leaving. We have found ants, centipedes, crickets, Gekko's by the dozen and not to mention the myriad of unidentified flying irritation that we encounter. Again, it is to be expected. So what, you may be asking yourselves, what is it that has pushed you from the home you have made together for the past eight months in Vietnam? What can be so bad that you will go through the stress and effort of finding a new house or apartment to live in? Well, as the title says...Toads.
Now hear this! I am not now nor have I ever been afraid of any reptiles. The toads don't scare me at all, they repulse me. Toads are just wrong. And, by the way, that is toadssss, plural. I can not accept that toads are coming in to my home. Karen agrees with me that we can accept many things in Vietnam as just "Comes with the territory" so to speak, but we cannot, however, deal with toads in our house.
What's the difference? Some of you may be asking, between a toad and a gekko, well...one is a reptile while the other is an amphibian, and Gekkos can climb walls while toads just hop around drunkenly. Why do the toads bother you so much more than the gekko's? To that question I have to answer...I don't know, but they just do! There is something so utterly repugnant about finding toads in your kitchen that I don't think I can adequately describe the feeling of revulsion that comes over me.
Hell, I used to catch frogs, toads, snakes and salamanders when I was a child, but this is my home and I will have it no longer. We are hitting the road and looking for a new place to set up shop. We know what we are doing now and we will keep our eyes open for the loudspeakers as well. Here's hoping that the new place will be toad, loudspeaker and frog free.
Bye for now,
-Ed