toknarok
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Leeches
Sept 21, 2016 9:25:14 GMT 7
Post by toknarok on Sept 21, 2016 9:25:14 GMT 7
Do you get water leeches in you neck of the woods? Come across them occasionally in Issan especially now during the rainy season (its belting down right now). When I had cattle, especially buffalo that like a swim had to check them for leeches. Very occasionally I'd find one sucking on the beast. Horrible looking things, black and when they're fully bloated with blood they're about 6 inches long. Thais call them 'pling' Yesterday there was one right outside my front gate. It had been raining and water was flowing down the road. It had obviously been feeding recently as it was fat and bloated. It took several heavy blows with a stout stick to despatch it, it's messy, blood everywhere. I've never seen a leech on a human myself but they are said to often attach themselves to persons particularly those that are harvesting rice by hand in flooded rice paddies. One of the joys of living in the tropics I suppose.
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Deleted
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Leeches
Sept 21, 2016 10:09:32 GMT 7
Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2016 10:09:32 GMT 7
Do you get water leeches in you neck of the woods? Come across them occasionally in Issan especially now during the rainy season (its belting down right now). When I had cattle, especially buffalo that like a swim had to check them for leeches. Very occasionally I'd find one sucking on the beast. Horrible looking things, black and when they're fully bloated with blood they're about 6 inches long. Thais call them 'pling' Yesterday there was one right outside my front gate. It had been raining and water was flowing down the road. It had obviously been feeding recently as it was fat and bloated. It took several heavy blows with a stout stick to despatch it, it's messy, blood everywhere. I've never seen a leech on a human myself but they are said to often attach themselves to persons particularly those that are harvesting rice by hand in flooded rice paddies. One of the joys of living in the tropics I suppose. I've seen leeches but never had the misfortune of seeing a full grown, blood bloated leech. The most disgusting creature I've seen are the worms that burrow into the human body, normally the leg - another gift from living in the tropics. Talking of worms/parasites, I remember Soutpeel talking about that at the other place. The Thais I know take medication every six months just to be on the safe side. One friend of a friend's teenage sister landed in intensive care due to a brain worm. They managed to kill the beast, but didn't dare operate to remove it, relying on the body dissolving the worm. I don't know to what extent she recovered from that experience. There's an arrogant and naive assertion of "I don't have a parasite," within the farang community. Unless you can control the food chain - and every time you eat out you can't - you're at risk. Thais I know say that fish and prawns are the worst culprits - especially those raw prawns they eat.
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AyG
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Leeches
Sept 21, 2016 14:05:03 GMT 7
Post by AyG on Sept 21, 2016 14:05:03 GMT 7
A few years ago I was in Flores (Indonesia). I walked around a roadside pond after it had been raining. On returning to the van I saw that I had a ring of leeches around both legs, just above my socks. They were engorged with my blood. I was a bit freaked out - it was my first close encounter with a leech - but they pulled off easily, and it didn't bleed too much. However, still a bit shaken, we stopped at the first cafe we came across for a cup of coffee to steady the nerves. Half way through the coffee my companion gave me a weird look and said "don't freak out". Somehow there was a leech bang in the middle of my forehead.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2016 15:20:12 GMT 7
I assumed this was a thread about leeches as in those family and friends who leech off you. Worst kind of leeches.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2016 16:04:49 GMT 7
I assumed this was a thread about leeches as in those family and friends who leech off you. Worst kind of leeches. So did I ! Thought some troll from the other place had snuck in here and started a Thai bashing thread. (no offence toknarok) I was going to say that I was lucky, no leeches in our family, but I could tell you some ripping yarns about mates of mine who married into the wrong families. Sucked dry. Have not had any leeches on me yet in Thailand but had lots of them back in Australia. Horrible things, when you remove them quite often the puncture hole keeps weeping blood for a while, apparently the leech does something to make the blood flow.
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Leeches
Sept 21, 2016 22:48:31 GMT 7
Post by rgs2001uk on Sept 21, 2016 22:48:31 GMT 7
The expression "ee pling" is right up there with one of the worst Thai insults you can use.
Be very careful when using this word, even better ignore it all together.
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Mosha
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Post by Mosha on Sept 22, 2016 3:21:06 GMT 7
Until a year or two back, they were a common sight in the rains. Cats would bring them into the house. I haven't seen one since then.
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