Snakes!

After our morning visit to the temples, we then visited the Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute Red Cross Snake Farm.  At this facility, they produce the snake antivenom for all of Southeast Asia and give public presentations.  We arrived at 1:45 and saw some of the most notable and dangerous snakes in Thailand.

I'm glad we don't have these in Missouri.

The first snake they brought out was a 8-10 foot long king cobra.  When the snake handler agitated it, the snake stood about waist high to him.  

king cobra

This handler was able to pick up a Siamese cobra well down the body from the head.  If the snake would have struck him, there is no way he could have avoided being bitten.  I noticed that there are no older snake handlers.  They're all young guys.  I wonder why that is...

The banded krait is one of the most toxic snakes in Thailand.

Following the presentation, they brought out a couple albino Burmese pythons for the audience to hold.  Most of our students worked up the nerve to hold one.  Here is Alyssa.

Sera.

Hli.

Taylor.

Zoe, Alexa, and Emily each worked up 33% of the requisite nerve, so they could collectively hold the snake.

Ashley.

Brandon.

After the snakes, we finally had a chance to get dinner.  I took the students who were daring enough to one of my favorite restaurants.  Here Hli is enjoying som tom (papaya salad).

Rachael got larb ma ma gai.  Mmmmm.  I was too busy enjoying my lab moo sup to take any more pictures.  

Hope you're enjoying the blog :-)