I always thought the "flying ants" were termites "mangmaows".

Yes, my bad. I call them "flying ants" because that's the nearest thing I had seen in the UK - before I came to Thailand - that looked like them . Also, I had thought that termites were really small, so when I talk about these giant flying things, I call them flying ants merely to aid communication.

But there's always some clever buggers knowledgeable fellows who actually know that they are termites.

These juicy tidbits:

(not the jin-joks, but what they're eating )

Yep it's great when it rains.. anything that pis*es off the tourists is fine by me.. Roll on low season

Certainly brought out the snails and slugs last night

I got ten snails and two large slugs on the terrace

Makes good soup!

Never tried Terrace soup before, what it like?

What do you do with the snails and slugs?

There are actually three seasons here; rainy season, cool and dry season and hot and dry season.

It is now changing from cool and dry to hot and dry season.

Koh Chang certainly hasn't had a 'hot and dry' season this year. March was hot as hel_l and it rained ~80% of the month, and not just light, intermittant showers either. The old locals here reckon this month will be just a bit drier than March--which is not the norm. Crazy.....

LOVE THE RAIN!! And so do the kids, they rather enjoy the cooler temperatures and going for uberly long yomps in the pouring rain!

I welcome the rain, but don't relish the gusts that come along with these evening t-storms. I lost half of a huge mango tree in the storm last night. I had heard the noise, but didn't actually see the better part of the tree on the ground in the garden till morning. It will take a chain saw to divide it into manageable pieces in order to cart it away.

umm, sorry but I hate the rain. I was stranded in Rawai last night when the rear tire went flat. My friend had to push the bike 2 kms until we found a repair shop open. We got caught in the downpour and drove back in the rain as well. The lightening was something.