Why did it have to be snakes?

Today was English Camp at Prathom. That meant that the primary school teachers had to go in to work today and do fun English activities with the students. They've been stressing out about it all week, and I found another reason why I'm glad I'm at Mathayom. They had to work late yesterday, which left four of us, me and Rachel from Mathayom, and Katie and Charnel from Vocational to ride the van home. The Prathom teachers were gone all day today too, and since Rachel and Charnel had other plans, Katie and I decided to go do some touristy things around the city.

This is Katie's second year here, but Bangkok is so huge you can't see everything in a year. We looked in our guidebooks and decided to visit the Thai Red Cross and Snake Farm; it's something most of the Prathom girls weren't interested in seeing anyway.

The Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute was founded in 1912 by King Rama VI. The institute is the headquarters for the Thai Red Cross, and was originally founded as a rabies research and treatment clinic. In 1922 the king started a special project in the research of snake antivenom. This was especially significant as at the time two of the princes and the princess were born in the Year of the Snake. (Coincidentally, 2013 happens to be the Year of the Snake again!)

The Snake Farm as it's commonly called, is one of the world's largest facilities for the research and production of antivenom.

Katie and I left our apartment at 10:15 this morning, and caught a taxi to take us to the Red Cross HQ. Because of the way the subway system is laid out, sometimes it's quicker to take a taxi. We didn't realize that it was graduation at one of the big universities in town though, and we were in the car for nearly an hour. It's ok though, because taxis in Bangkok are really nice, and super cheap. On the ride we realized that we had taken a class together at Baylor!

Warning: Snake Pictures!

It only cost B200 for admission to the Snake Farm. That's really reasonable, especially since it's kind of a tourist thing. The admission money goes towards research. The snake researchers hold a show twice daily where they show different types of snakes and demonstrate how they milk venom for the production of antivenom. The show started at 11, and because of the traffic we unfortunately missed some of it. We did get to see them show several snakes though. We sat on outdoor bleachers and watched as a snake handler showed off the different species while a scientist talked about each snake first in Thai and then in English.

highly venomous pit viper

The first snake that we saw was a small green pit viper. The snake handler had him wrapped around a stick, and as the snake began moving towards him, he calmly pulled it back down the stick or just switched hands. That snake is highly venomous. They are partially arboreal, and sometimes drop down off of trees. They're really dangerous, and they live here in Thailand.

Not every snake they showed was venomous though. Another snake they brought out was a certain species of rat snake. It's not venomous, but can be aggressive. The handler demonstrated this by putting the snake on the ground and jumping back as it tried to strike. He did this a few times, jumping around the snake so the audience could see it from different angles. It was super fast! As soon as the handler picked it up though, it became calm.

At the end of the show the snake handler and the announcer brought out a huge python. It was big and really calm, and they had us line up to take pictures with it! 

learning stuff at the snake farm

Holding the python wasn't creepy or scary at all; the snake was actually really friendly, as much as that's possible. It's amazing how heavy he was though. I put him across my shoulders, and I could feel that he was all muscle. There were probably forty or fifty people at the show, almost all tourists. Not everyone had their pictures made, but some of the littlest kids were the bravest. It was so funny to see a tiny seven or eight year old girl with this giant snake wrapped around her!

After the show we got to walk around the snake farm. It had started to rain a little, but not too much. The area we were allowed to walk around was sort of like an outdoor zoo with habitat exhibits set up that you could look down in. There were lots of different types of pythons, one big grey one called an "elephant trunk snake", and some anacondas.

Then we went inside the education center. The entire first floor was a serpentarium, and we spent a long time looking in the glass cages and reading the information signs about the different types of snakes. There are some really cool colorful snakes that live in Southeast Asia (most of them are venomous).

The second floor had exhibits about snakes. The first section was all about toxicology, and had some really gross photos. The next part was about snake mythology in different cultures. The symbol of a snake eating its own tail to symbolize eternity was developed in Mesoamerica, ancient Egypt, the Greco-Roman world, and Asia independently!

After that there were exhibits about snake eggs and their life cycle, and then there were skins and skeletons. It was all really interesting, and presented in a really professional way. The work that they do at the Snake Farm is really helpful. Even today, people die every year in the region from snake bites. There are over 180 different species of snakes in Thailand alone. I don't know how many are venomous, but the antivenom produced at the Red Cross center saves a lot of lives every year. I've never been overly fond of snakes, but the whole thing was weirdly fascinating. It was something that I've really been wanting to see, and wasn't disappointed. Guys, I know so much about snakes now. Did you know that king cobras are one of the few snake species that cares for their young?

It was early afternoon when we left the Snake Farm. We still had a lot of the day left and wanted to go to another museum that sounded interesting.

Spoiler: the museum was closed. We did have another interesting adventure in Bangkok though.