Oh, the Places You'll Go!: Living in a Haze...

Life in the tropics can be great. With guaranteed warm weather, sunshine, and "seasonal" fruits that are always in season, we get to experience all the perks associated with the perpetual summer. With all of those perks, however, there is also one pesky, pesty little problem that leaves one....er...."itching" for cooler climates. Mosquitoes. These "dengue" mosquitoes here are out of control. The mosquitoes are such an issue here that instead of perfume, we pride ourselves on who wears the nicest smelling Off Spray or Skin-so-Soft (the best smelling folks here have all imported their respective sprays, by the way). Instead of ornate candlesticks, most restaurants use mosquito coil centerpieces to wow their diners. Instead of tennis or badminton rackets on game nights, our friends here all pull out their mosquito rackets for a friendly game of bug zapping. And instead of traditional mosquito repellent methods like simply lighting some citronella candles around the yard, we have a team of pest control guys that come out and fog the entire property, inside and out with their heavy duty mosquito-killing (and no telling what else kind-of-killing) chemicals. Imagine sitting at home just to look out the window and seeing a team of "Ghostbusters" swarming the property in full-fledged gas masks and uniforms spraying no-telling-what into the air around you. And you're in Malaysia. Yikes. The first time these guys came in and took the house by "storm" I was a nervous wreck. I mean, this crazy fog stuff was actually seeping in through all of the windows, doors, and various other cracks in the house until a nice, thick haze settled in all around the place. But once I made it through what I considered to be the most critical phase of fog-induced fear, and I was certain that I'd survived whatever chemicals they were spraying into the air all around me, I learned to really appreciate what they were doing for us and have even come to looking forward to their bimonthly foggings and to living a life as mosquito-free as possible until the next fog wears off!