How High Do Mosquitoes Fly?
Of course, some things are simply beyond our control, and no
amount of planning can guarantee a flawless vacation. I remember
one of my first trips to Jakarta, Indonesia, where my husband's
brother and his family live. We had made the long flight halfway
around the world, and I was exhausted. (A quick geography
refresher: Jakarta is near the equator, and it is very hot and
humid there.) We were staying in a nice hotel with the modern
comforts of air conditioning and purified water... two important
elements for me.
When we checked into the hotel, we were informed that they would
be doing some electrical work on the elevator shafts, and would
therefore be turning the electricity off for the entire hotel
from 2:00 AM to 8:00 AM while they did the work. I thought to
myself, "Well, by then I will be asleep and I won't even notice
it."
Boy, was I wrong! At 2:40 AM I woke up in a sweat. By 3:00 AM I
was really hot and sticky. I had a brilliant idea! We were on
the 12th floor, and I decided to open the windows to let in some
fresh air. There were no screens on the windows, but I figured
that we were high enough off the ground that it would be safe to
open them. I made an assumption that mosquitoes would not fly
that high. Again, I was wrong. Within a few minutes I had 32
mosquito bites covering my body and more were buzzing in my ear.
Now I was not only hot and sticky, but I also felt like one
huge, itchy, miserable welt. (My husband only had two mosquito
bites. For some reason, mosquitoes have always liked me more
than him.) We ended up leaving our hotel room and walking around
the lobby the rest of the night.
Read the Complete Article...
