Things that Tap Windows at Night on Efate Island, Vanuatu

Eratap bungalow back yard, Efate Island

Asking questions can sometimes lead to receiving answers one might prefer not to know. For example, I am attempting to set up a deep sea fishing expedition off Efate Island for Tuesday morning. Why deep sea? Because I can eat the fish that I catch. If I fish off the island in shallow waters I must catch and release or else give the fish away to the boat captain and, let’s face it, the better fish hang around in deeper waters out to sea. Fish like mahi-mahi or wahoo or yellowfin tuna.

Question: Am I allowed to eat everything I catch?

Answer: You can eat any fish except the type with the worms because the cook won’t allow that kind of fish in her kitchen.

Or, maybe a more simple thing might be to find out what it is that wakes me up several times during the night. It’s not the singing birds or the sound of waves crashing the shore, or even the rain that can fall so hard it sounds like I’m in the center of an underwater sewer in Atlantis. It’s the rapping on the window. Clearly a knock, a slight tap, in succession, maybe 4 or 5 times.

Beach lounging at Eratap, Efate Island

It could be a bird drinking out of the water bowl with lilies, I reckoned. Maybe its beak hits the side of the bowl, creating an echo. But no, upon recollection, it was definitely on the glass window, probably the doors on my bedroom deck. Tap, tap, tap, tap. Surely, I am not the only guest at Eratap to hear this sound, so I wandered to the front desk where the helpful staff always have the answers at hand.

This is also a good time to point out the dinner menu explanation in the resort book has a section titled lobster and bugs. I could see there is spiny lobster offered which, for some reason, they want to cover in mayonnaise, but I could not find the bugs. Not that I would eat a bug. Not on purpose. I suppose that when I sleep with my mouth open a bug could fly inside but they would say to themselves, whoa, all this crap is not teeth and leave.

Not really wanting to know the answer, I asked the question anyway about what could be rapping on my window in the middle of the night.

Oh. Must be the geckos.

Of course. Their little tails, slap, slap, slap, slap, saying: lemme in, lemme in, so I can quickly prance across your half-naked body with my sloppy fat wet toes.

I did not need to know that. So, I am NOT asking about the bugs.