Chugalug and
GlobalNav,
My #8013 (Item 4) refers, seems we do not have to worry unduly about Gila Monsters (Wiki), as they only live in the SW of the US and northern Mexico. That said, they can keep them as they appear to be an unprepossessing animal which I would not like as a pet.
What the writer saw in N. Burma would not be one of those...... but heat and high humidity do strange things to a man, and after a while you tend to see things which are not there. Perhaps some other form of large lizard ?
Danny.