Online tourist information center

This is the 26th month of our new life in Thailand. Each day is amazing and brings with it something new to marvel at. Today is no exception. For today is the day of the Bat.

Sitting outside as the sun goes down has become part of our daily routine. We often sit on the upstairs veranda watching the setting sun disappear into the Gulf of Siam away in the distance. Frequently the cloud formation is extravagant in the extreme, lit behind by the red ball of the setting sun, making it look as if some outrageous Modernist painter has attacked the sky canvas with a mile wide paintbrush and every conceivable hue of red, orange, pink and purple.

The water birds both large and small fly across our garden from the lake opposite and are beautiful to watch with such an amazing backdrop. Most days too, we are fortunate spectators to the flights of innumerable swifts and swallows as the air cools and the insects become active. They dive and weave at a staggering speed.

But this particular evening we sat in our garden at the back of the house, surrounded by the stillness of the countryside around. We spoke quietly as if in awe of the beauty. Suddenly something moved silently from the overhanging roof tile above my husbands head; I held my breath, not daring to believe my eyes or say anything.

As I watched in the next couple of minutes five more silent winged creatures flew off into the dusk in search of their supper across the farmland towards the mountains.

Bats, large bats are living in our roof space just feet from our kitchen door! I’m thrilled. No, I’m ecstatic! For as long as I could remember I’ve loved bats and often used to wondered why our various homes in England had not hosted the little creatures as we’d lived most of our lives in the countryside.

Now, here I am, some 8,000 miles away from my native England and sharing my home with these delightful animals. There are numerous species of bats in this tropical part of the world and it’s impossible with such a fleeting glimpse of them each dusk to distinguish the species. They’re beautiful and who cares what species they are? We have them here in our home and that’s what really matters. We have bats in the roof!

Now we’ve observed them for over four months so can safely say they aren’t just some migrants.

As we sit here this evening with all the birds in the garden building nests or raising young, we’re wondering just how many bats will be in our roof space by the end of Spring? Who knows?