The girls' last adventure before returning to China was to visit the Red Cross Snake Farm. I am not sure if that is its real name, this is where they have various snakes and actually milk the snakes to make anti-venom, etc. David took them and they loved it, go figure?
The people had really good English, though most of the visitors were Thai, they had two 'shows' going on...
the Cobra. King Cobras lock their jaws and release all their venom in one bite which is what makes them so deadly. The list of things that happens to your body after a bite is wretched. It has enough venom in that one bite to kill an elephant, and we actually heard that a worker was bitten during a show and died within ten minutes (not sure when that happened).
This is a Siamese Cobra, and it hisses a lot.
The famous rhyme 'red and yellow kill the fellow, red on black is a friend to jack' I think only works to distinguish some North American Snakes (coral and the like). I would kill any brightly colored snake found in Asia (sorry snake lovers). This black and yellow snake is indeed poisonous.
Here is a kind of pit viper. They are small (hence the use of the stick), and deadly. This is the kind that the groundskeeper found in our front yard in our Bangkok apartment.
Not sure if you can see it clearly. This is a copperhead, trying to strike/bite this guy, actually an aggressive non-venomous snake. Still couldn't pay me to do his job.
Oh, and the python...The girls were very interested in how each snake's venom worked or how it killed things. Sophia came home and said: 'I touched the kind that strangles people'...
All calm and collected...and then...
and then he brought the head around to her and she jumped back startled.
and your friendly non-poisonous snakes.
The show was extremely informative. David learned that Cobras can't see that well so you don't necessarily need to run, and another kind of deadly snake has great infrared senses in its nostrils, so if you see it, RUN! We learned that approximately 5 million people are bit by snakes a year, mostly in Asia and Africa. 200,000 are lethal....okay, now that you have received your snake education for the day....
If you haven't gotten enough and want to know more about Thailand's snakes: go here
Oh and did I mention the entrance fee was 150 Baht total for David and the girls, that is about $5.00, what a steal!
