It was a Steve Irwin moment in Bintan that I couldn't resist

Video was taken by LTM when a few of us were having a retreat in Bintan.

G'day. We were swimming at the Bintan Lagoon Resort pool when I spotted a large shadow at the bottom of the pool. Crikey! I immediately recognised the 'shadow' as a water monitor lizard. It must have come from the nearby natural foliage surrounding the lush resort. From nose-to-tail, it must have been about 2.5m long. Water monitors are large reptiles and are highly adaptable to their environment. They are known to be able to survive in sea conditions as well as fresh water conditions. It looks like our little friend here has even taken to living the good life at the resort's chlorinated swimming pool. Apart from sunning themselves at high noon (they are after all reptiles - cold blooded animals), they are also omniverous creatures. They are not known to attack human beings unless provoked (all animals are usually like that), and their bite is not usually fatal or poisonous but the saliva might carry harmful bacteria.

Every wise swimmer got out of the pool except for some nosy adventurous kids who decided to mess around with the reptile. I took the opportunity to whip out my trusty shockproof, waterproof Olympus 720sw for an underwater shot of the reptile. Then I got TM to video me as Steve Irwin. The video shown is actually the second take - the idiot TM forgot to start the videoing process at the first take. The first take actually saw me following the creature to the other end of the pool and running a commentary ala Steve Irwin style. I understand that VNN has got portions of the first take from his Panasonic camera.