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 1:30, exactly one hour before the presentation started.  They bring out some of the most noteworthy snakes of Thailand, and it was worth the wait to sit in the front row.

I'm not sure how to spell heebie-jeebies ...

The first snake they brought out was a 12 foot king cobra.  The handler set it loose in front of the crowd.  The screen that you see separating the front row from the fangs was not there two years ago; they must have had an incident in the interim.

The king cobra eats other snakes and is common throughout Thailand.  It can deliver enough venom to take down an elephant.  Other snakes like Siamese cobra, banded krait, and others were also brought out.  But what got the most interest was the Burmese python, which everyone got a chance to hold.

Maggie holding the albino Burmese python.

Becca

Kyler

Carlie

Jake

Dana

Jess

Anna

Kelly and Gabi

Carley

Olivia

Sara

Alysa

All of us!

And here's our wonderful larb dinner at the Hai restaurant.