A Bug’s Life

“Fikri! Over here!”

It was a cool summer’s night in Bangkok. After a long day, and having spent some time in the internet café writing up my story for the day, I was walking back towards the hostel we were staying in, when Sze Mun, Li Yien and Suet Yeing called me over.

“What’s up girls?” I greeted them. Aaron and I seated ourselves.

“Would you be willing to eat something different?” said Suet Yeing.

“Well,” I mused that thought, my mind flashing back to the night before, when my lecturer Dr Yeoh described her as a mercenary. “That depends. If it’s halal, then I wouldn’t mind.”

“Alright!” she yelped. Then she turned to Yi Shu, who was sitting next to me. “You must close his eyes, and he mustn’t open them until we said so.”

That, I wasn’t worried about. I was willing to play along anyway, so there was little chance of me spoiling my surprise.

Yi Shu shut my eyes as I closed them and simultaneously opened my mouth. Within a second, I felt something stuffed in my mouth. “OK, chew.”

I chewed. It crisped with a nice, BBQ-like taste, as my teeth grinded it to bits, before swallowing it down. It wasn’t bad.

“OK, you can open your eyes now.”

I felt Yi Shu remove her hands from my eyes, and I opened them.

On the table before is a plate full of fried maggots and beetles.

And all I could say was, “Mmm.”