Snake in your pants … or excuse me, there’s a snake in my toilet!

Lunch is getting cold when the phone rings. It’s Sir Pe explaining that he has to take a longer way home due to a large black snake with a white V on its head sitting right in the middle of the narrow bridge. Immobile. Tongue flickering. With a mean look in its eye.

He thinks it’s a poisonous adder.

I do what any sane person would do and rush out with my camera to try and take a photo of the magnificent creature. Unfortunately it’s moved off into the verge and slithers away quickly when it hears the shutter noise of the camera.

I return home feeling brave. My Facebook friends tell me later on that it looks like a harmless grass snake.

But I still feel brave because I took photos for you, dear readers, anyway – thinking it was a dangerous reptile!

Which brings me to the title of this post.

When I lived in China back in the 1980s, I visited many a temple perched picturesquely atop mountains.

Climbing thousands of stairs carved into the mountainside under a hot sun works up a thirst. So, you drink a lot.

And eventually, you have to pee.

Now toilets back then were non-existent, or – if you were lucky – large sheds with ditches overflowing with human waste.

So, you didn’t enter them unless you had to.

I just needed to empty my bladder. So, I wandered off into some brush, hid behind a large rock …

… and relieved myself. For quite a long time.

As I was finishing, I noticed a large black body and a very cross beady eye looking at me.

Somehow, I had managed to step on a snake and immobilize it while peeing on its body.

I jumped into the air and it slithered off looking … well … very pissed off.

Apparently, peeing on a snake stops it from biting you. Who knew?

Which brings back memories of that time in China when I came eye to eye with an angry green Tree Python.

But that, dear friends, is a story for another time.

So – what unusual toilets have you experienced?

For other, hopefully, snake-free adventures, check out: Camera Critters.