Jungle Monster in the Bathroom

"Visit Sri Lanka for the amazing wildlife" boasts the tourist promotion board. What they don't tell you is that quite often this wildlife gets a little close for comfort. Take, for example the incident I describe below.

Having got used to ants in the cupboard, geckos on the walls and rodents in the ceiling at our perfectly respectable Tangalla residence, this one was still a surprise.

The land monitor can grow over two metres top to tail, and this specimen I came across in the shower/toilet area was at least 150cm long. Attracted to the bathroom by the promise of tasty frogs and toads, luckily they don't tend to bite humans. However you can get a nasty cut from the grasping claws and whipping tail.


There's somebody using the toilet - as a frog hunting ground





















Don't get too close to those claws...