Day 343: Frogs before dawn

I woke up very early this morning – before 5am; before dawn – and could hear a large number of frogs calling like crazy not far from the bungalow. The call was different to the one I had heard last night, and although I tried to go back to sleep, I kept thinking that I should get up and check them out. Under such circumstances sleep was always going to elude me so eventually I gave up, got up, got dressed, grabbed my camera and went out to see if I could get any photos. The frogs were incredibly noisy, and not that easy to find at first, but then I finally spotted one hidden in the grass beside a big puddle in the road. What I really wanted was shots of the frogs with their vocal sacs extended – caught in the act of calling – but that proved more difficult than usual (and it's usually pretty difficult) as the frogs had a very short, explosive call, and their vocal sacs were only fully expanded for a split second. Add the fact that it was pitch dark and I'm surprised that I got as many shots as I did, just firing at random when I came across a calling male. Eventually, dawn light suffused the sky and I gave up and returned to the bungalow.

Later in the morning, we went back to Jungle Juice to try to get some breakfast, but it was a Saturday and when we got there, the young girl who ran it said that it was shut, so we went next door to a place called Thai Herb. Afterwards, we went back to Baan Khao Sok to do some more planning and schoolwork. Around lunchtime, Kate walked up the road to the minimart to get some ingredients so we could have some more tuna and cucumber sandwiches. Sarah and I then went for a swim in the river in the rain – after yesterday's toe-related incident, Kate and Zoe weren't keen on joining us. Then it was off to Jungle Juice for some beer, wasabi peanuts and pork crackling, and then back to Baan Khao Sok for dinner.