Every Sunday at Kaewsamrit is considered a rest day (i.e., no training). Fighters typically spend the day recouping from the intensive training week by going about town to get massages, buffets, and shopping done. Some opt to sleep the day away in the rooms, especially if he or she fought the night before.
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| View from the entrance, Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute |
The Snake Farm is more than just a zoo or tourist attraction. It is one of the world's leading producers of exotic venomous snake species antivenin. The Institute itself began in 1912, when Thailand officially sponsored the Institute as a place for rabies vaccine research. After producing several vaccines for the next decade, the institute opened as a "snake farm" in 1923, charging tourists a small fee to see the snakes in order to fund their invaluable snake antivenin research and services. Because of Thailand's 175 species of snake, 48 of which are venomous, their work is prized by locals and foreigners alike. Today, they house thousands of species of the world's most exotic venomous snakes (including the King Cobra and non-venomous but deadly Anaconda), specializing in snake husbandry and education.
As I set out from the camp Sunday morning, one of the trainers offered me a ride on his motorcycle into "town," or at least what's considered downtown for the small Bangkok suburb of Talingchan. One thing I know in life is this: when a Thai trainer offers you a free motorcycle ride, you hop on, and then you say many thank-yous. I took a taxi the rest of the way into the city. The drive totaled about thirty minutes; this was a welcomed and rare relief from the Bangkok heat since cab drivers aren't shy about using the A.C. You can get to this place by public transportation if you wish, but this will take about three times longer to get there.
The men at the gate kindly ushered me past the main building (pictured above) and to the ticket stand. I spent several hours looking through the exhibits and watching the demonstrations. Below is a summary of the information I gathered from the experience. Overall, I would highly recommend this experience to travelers; like many things in Bangkok, it's cheap, it's exciting, and you won't find it anywhere else in the world.
I. Basic Information:
Admission costs 200 baht (about 6 dollars) for adults, 50 baht for children.
The hours of operation:
Monday-Saturday: 9:30am to 3:30pm
Sundays and Holidays: 9:30am to 1:00pm
Show Times:
Monday-Saturday:
Venom Extraction Demonstration, 11:00am
Snake Handling Demonstration, 2:30pm
Sundays and Holidays:
Snake Handling Demonstration, 11:00am
II. The Snake Handling Demonstration
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| King Cobra brought out for snake handling demonstration |
The audience sits behind a small wall or stands behind a chain while snake handlers bring out several venomous and some non-venomous species to show. One main handler narrates the action in both English and Thai translations, a sort of tour guide full of information about the Institute and its serpentine residents.
They start with the big ticket item: the King Cobra. I stood behind the chain while several men brought out a King Cobra and plopped it on the floor in front of us, as if it were just some piece of furniture they were used to handling. These handlers spend years working with the snakes, learning exactly how to do it without getting bit (although several do get bit each year, with occasional deaths). Still, you have the option of standing only ten feet away from one of the world's most deadly snakes. Because the King Cobra only senses movement, this is just like the scene in Jurassic Park where Grant faces down T-Rex: don't move, and he can't see you. So there I stood, motionless as the cobra ten feet away stood up, flared it's hood and looked right past me. No big movements. No big movements. I snapped a few pictures without moving my feet, the handlers keeping a close eye on the tourists crazy enough to get that close.
After the King Cobra, the handlers brought out several more species, my favorite being the Siamese Spitting Cobras. As the handler taunted and aggravated the twin cobras, the narrator explained that the cobras could not see him standing still behind them. He poked one of them jokingly in the head from behind and the snake dipped down like a toy float in a pool before looking around in front of it into the audience menacingly as if to say "WHO took my lunch money?!?" Chuckling and gasps filled the air.
At the end of the show, the handlers bring out pythons for audience members to take pictures with, free of charge.
III. A Few of Bangkok's Venomous Snakes
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| Green Tree Python |
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| Monocellate (Albino) Cobra |
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| Indochinese Spitting Cobra |
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| Green Anaconda; not venomous, but still deadly due to it's size and power. |
For a more detailed list of Thailand's venomous snakes, go here.
IV. The Basics of Venomous Snake Bites: How it Works
What exactly is snake venom? It's an evolutionary twist on saliva, modified through thousands of years of natural selection, to serve two principle purposes. First, it demobilizes prey so that the snake can eat the prey whole. Aside from the two fangs which function like hypodermic needles, snake have no teeth, nor do they masticate (or "chew"). The snake will actually detach its jaw bones to facilitate swallowing. Thus, snake venom eliminates the problem of a struggling meal during this process (non-venomous snakes deal with this problem through the familiar Jiu Jitsu solution of suffocation). Second, venom demobilization serves as a defense mechanism.
There are two main types of snake zootoxins or venom: neurotoxins and cytotoxins. Each is a combination of proteins, enzymes, and polypeptides that typically act on different vertebrate systems of the body.
Neurotoxins:
These act on neuron receptors in the body's cells, essentially changing the signal or "message" that cells receive. By either overstimulating or blocking the nerve signals, these proteins can manipulate the body into conditions of muscle tetanus and heart failure, or cause complete muscle paralysis.
Fasciculins: these cause muscle tetanus by overstimulating the nerves in the muscles, which leads to heart failure. Species include black mambas and some rattlesnakes.
Dendrotoxins: these cause muscle failure or paralysis by doing the exact opposite of fasciculins - allowing NO nerve impulses to transmit. Species include cobras and sea snakes.
Cytotoxins:
These have specific effects on only certain types of cells, and are thus more specific and less generalized than neurotoxins. These include cardiotoxins (those that stop the heart, found in King Cobras) and hemotoxins (those that destroy blood cells or cause coagulation, found in multiple species of cobras and vipers).
For more information on snake venom, go here.
