The Rat

[GuestHouse]

My wife and I where having dinner in a restaurant in Thailand one evening when a rat suddenly appeared from under one of the tables.

So as you can imagine, we stopped eating, and I asked for the bill. (Let's not get into trying to get out of the restaurant without paying and without a meat cleaver in the back of my head).

Anyway, the waiter was a bit perplexed at why we should want to leave, after all the fish hadn't come yet.

"The rat's put us off eating" I said.

"We don't serve rat here" he answered, and then added "But I can fetch you rat from the Laos restaurant up the street aways"

'No we don't want rat, we've seen a rat in your restaurant and we don't want to eat here'

"Ah... just one moment sirs"

He went off and came back with the manager.

"What's this about a rat?"

Just then the rat reappeared

"There it is" I said, pointing at Rodney the Rat.

All hel_l let loose, the manager and waiter hopelessly chasing the rat around the restaurant.

'OK enough' I said, slammed the money for the bill on the table and headed for the door.

"Sirs" called the manager, "you don't have to worry.... It's not our rat" .... "It came from the restaurant next door"

[Pattaya_Fox]

Sounds like a classic from Fawlty Towers with Manuel and the Major chasing the Rat and Basil proclaiming that it wasn`t theirs.

[soundman]

GH - your pulling our legs.... right?

Soundman.

[SamuiJens]

My wife and I where having dinner in a restaurant in Thailand one evening when a rat suddenly appeared from under one of the tables.

So as you can imagine, we stopped eating, and I asked for the bill. (Let's not get into trying to get out of the restaurant without paying and without a meat cleaver in the back of my head).

Anyway, the waiter was a bit perplexed at why we should want to leave, after all the fish hadn't come yet.

"The rat's put us off eating" I said.

"We don't serve rat here" he answered, and then added "But I can fetch you rat from the Laos restaurant up the street aways"

'No we don't want rat, we've seen a rat in your restaurant and we don't want to eat here'

"Ah... just one moment sirs"

He went off and came back with the manager.

"What's this about a rat?"

Just then the rat reappeared

"There it is" I said, pointing at Rodney the Rat.

All hel_l let loose, the manager and waiter hopelessly chasing the rat around the restaurant.

'OK enough' I said, slammed the money for the bill on the table and headed for the door.

"Sirs" called the manager, "you don't have to worry.... It's not our rat" .... "It came from the restaurant next door"

Jeez, I'd get mad to, when they call my wife a sir too! Or is she a he?

[draggons]

For anyone who was in Abu Dhabi in the mid 80's and remembers Nell Guyn's, the same thing was common there right down to the waiter chasing Roland Rat around with the broom. Once you got use to it it was as funny as <deleted>.

[JimsKnight]

Just what kind of a restaurant were you in? Was it a swanky place or a down in the dumps place open to the elements??

Rats do wander around you know...

[highdiver]

go see the new movie Rattatui..

it will cahnge you mind about rats in resteraunts.

[johnong]

I woke up and found a small rat in our toilet this morning! Lucky really as I was a bit hungover and thought it was a moving turd at first!

[lannarebirth]

Exact same thing happened to me at an Indian restaurant here in Chiang Mai. It was huge and he looked very much at home. Not at all stealthy. I was finished eating that second

[Nongwahyay]

........I find your reaction an over-reaction........ as we all know, rats are everywhere and you have to accept the fact..... better move this to the jokes section........it would go down wll there.....

[SamuiJens]

They say rat taste's of chicken!

[Old Croc]

As has been said, rats are everywhere. In Bali it is common to see them in the rafters of outdoor resaurants and hotels. The locals don't turn a hair.

If you are that squeamish about the sight of a small furry rodent I suggest you don't go back to asia.

[Sanpatong]

When in Rome, do as the Romans.

[Tootah]

Rats are expensive and delicious. You can buy a good one for 70baht roadside Chacheongsao to Bangkok, add a somtam, sticky rice and khanom jeen and you have an excellent meal, no joke. I feel hungry now.

Edited August 11, 2007 by Tootah

[SamuiJens]

Rats are expensive and delicious. You can buy a good one for 70baht roadside Chacheongsao to Bangkok, add a somtam, sticky rice and khanom jeen and you have an excellent meal, no joke. I feel hungry now.

Well there is NO LACK of this fine meat in LOS, so eat on mate and enjoy!

Edited August 11, 2007 by SamuiJens

[rainman]

I bet it escaped from their kitchen... bon appetite!

[Kimera]

When in Rome, do as the Romans.

Do you mean building an efficient and modern sewerage and drainage system?

Apparently, although bizarrely possible some two millenia ago, the Bangkok Municipalities find this somewhat of a problem in this day and age...

Might not work though! in the UK you are never more than 10 feet away from a rat, They say

[suegha]

They say rat taste's of chicken!

The taste of rat is governed by it's diet!

[tuky]

Rats are everywhere in super clean Singapore too...something very hard to get rid of I think.

But if a rat was showing its face more often than the waiter I'd be out of there just like the GH.

[simon43]

I find the best place for 'rat-watching' is if you sit and have an expensive breakfast on the terrace at the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok. Most tourists don't realise that the small hedges just by the tables are home to some very big rats! They will run between the legs of customers and tables as the former eat. It's fun watching them and no reflection at all upon the cleaniness of the Landmark, (but maybe they could replace the hedges with something that is less concealing...)

Simon

[November Rain]

I find the best place for 'rat-watching' is if you sit and have an expensive breakfast on the terrace at the Landmark Hotel in Bangkok. Most tourists don't realise that the small hedges just by the tables are home to some very big rats! They will run between the legs of customers and tables as the former eat. It's fun watching them and no reflection at all upon the cleaniness of the Landmark, (but maybe they could replace the hedges with something that is less concealing...)

Simon

OMG! You are joking? I've eaten there! Rats are something I still have a big problem with. Mice are OK, but those big brutes.... uuuurrrrggghh!

My Mum was sitting in an open-air bar in one of the sois off Sukhumvit a few years back (no idea which bar/soi), when she felt something tickling her foot. She looked down & there was a big rat, sitting half-on, half-off her foot cleaning his whiskers. She said she screamed & kicked, whereupon the rat flew through the air the entire length of the bar, landed & ran off. Mum says the bar staff wondered what she was making such a big deal about!

I'm with you, GH, I'd have been outta there. It's one thing knowing they're probably around, and quite another having rats as the floor show.

[sukanyacondo]

Hmmmmmmmmmm now what happened in Europe about 500 years ago with Rats???

[sukanyacondo]

http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/fleas/bdeath/

Oh look its the oriental rat flea my god they even wanted us falangs dead even then!!!

[WaiWai]

The Major is wandering cautiously around the bar, looking for the now departed rat:

Basil: Do you need any help Major?

Major (pointing the shotgun at Basil): Don’t move! Vermin!

Basil: We haven’t got any this week, Major. No Germans staying this week… may I have the gun?

Major: I’m going to shoot him, Fawlty.

Basil: Yes… Major… Not… not legal anymore…murder…

Major: But they’re animals, Fawlty!

Basil: Oh yes, yes… Still, forgive and forget, eh, Major?

Major: Forgive ’em?

Basil: Well, pretend we do.

Major: But they spread disease, Fawlty… he was sitting there on that table, eating the nuts if you please.

Basil (to himself): He’s really gone this time.

Major: About that size. That with the tail (indicating the size of the rat).

The penny drops for Basil:

Basil: Tail… what did you say it was?

Major: Vermin… A dirty rat!

[meemiathai]

Maybe watching this may make you change your minds?

[Norrad]

I had the same thing happen to me the other day. The girlfriend and I were at one of outdoor buffet restaurants enjoing our meal when I saw a monster rat casually wondering around under the tables. It even crawled over one girls foot and she didn't seem worried at all. I could imagine the same scene back home and you would have hundreds of panicked woman on top of the tables. It didn't bother me too much as I have scene rats everywhere in Thailand. But I did tell my girlfriend how foreign women would panic. She seemed amused.

Funny thing is that there were quite a few cats around but they weren't the slightest bit interested in the rat.

[meemiathai]

I remember 7 years ago when I asked my wife if she was afraid of rats. She said we'll eat them!

After spending all these years with my cats, she now love animals almost more than I do.

Edited August 12, 2007 by meemiathai

[WaiWai]

Fearing contact with rats is by no means irrational. They carry numerous diseases, including tuberculosis & foot and mouth disease - not only urban rats, but field rats, too. Leptospirosis is contracted from rats' urine. Some diseases can be contracted by eating rats. They're not called vermin for nothing !

Edited August 12, 2007 by WaiWai

[tutsiwarrior]

Funny thing is that there were quite a few cats around but they weren't the slightest bit interested in the rat.

not surprising...a lot of the critters that I've seen in SEA are as big as cats and the felines don't mess widdem...

[WaiWai]

Cats aren't stupid.

In fact, I remember reading about cats dying after eating rats who had ingested rat poison .

Better stick to tuna .

Edited August 12, 2007 by WaiWai