Woman Films ‘Cute’ Vacation Video for Mom—Then Spots What’s in the Water

A woman enjoying a poolside meal at a resort in Thailand was stunned when a lizard suddenly swam toward her.

Rachel Meyer (@sendmetacoss), 29, from Minnesota, USA, shared the surprising moment on TikTok, initially filming herself tucking into spaghetti at a resort on Coconut Island in Phuket. She intended to send the video to her mom—until a reptilian intruder made an unexpected entrance. Her video has since gone viral, racking up 311,800 likes and 2.9 million views.

“My friend and I were just eating near the pool when I turned around the lizard was swimming toward me. That gasp I let out had him turn away immediately. My friend and I grabbed our food and ran right inside our hotel room. The girls across from our room heard me scream and then saw us pack up—they went inside immediately too,” Meyer told Newsweek.

An hour later, the lizard returned to swim in the pool, seemingly unbothered.

“POV trying to make a cute video for my mom so she knows I’m still alive on vacay,” she wrote as the text overlay of the video.

Meyer joked that the lizard might have had a soft spot for pasta—a craving she could relate to.

The creature was likely a water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator), a common sight in Thailand, particularly in tropical areas like Coconut Island. These lizards are semi-aquatic and can often be seen swimming or basking near water. Despite their intimidating size—sometimes growing up to 3 meters long—they’re generally shy and avoid humans unless provoked. Though they can bite if threatened, they usually retreat when confronted.

On TikTok, viewers were amused and intrigued:

“This is exactly where I stayed for holiday last month in that exact same hotel and saw the same monitor lizard. It does bite but only a little nibble and only if you are annoying it or intruding its place. It’s a really cool animal though,” said one user.

“I had to watch this like five times to see the lizard,” said Tessa.

“We had one crawl up from our bathroom drain in Sri Lanka two days ago,” shared Tasha.

“Send to your mum saying, ‘I’m alive, not sure how long for,'” joked another viewer.

“Homeboy is like MMMMmmmMmmmMmmm,” quipped one user.

“He wants a bite,” added another.

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