Guy on the cover of Lunatic Magazine

In Bangkok we saw the queen sponsored snake farm.  It is a large complex near a hospital. The mission of the royal endeavor charges the undertaker with farming anti venom and educating the people of thailand about snakes.  The anti venom farming involves milking snakes and injecting horses.  Creepy but necessary.  The education part involves keeping 134 different snakes, maintaining a museum, and putting on a twice daily snake show.  The shows are not as necessary as insuring supplies of anti venom are available, but they are is in large part what makes the availability of anti venom so essential.

Just after the start of the show we noticed that our narrator had only three fingers on one of his hands.  He also mentioned that all of the snake handlers had been bitten at least twice (there were 4 handlers) and that they returned to handling snakes because they loved their jobs. 

Sure, all part of the act, right?  That is what I was thinking until after the show and we were watching the bite first aid interactive display in the museum.  They had footage of the three finger guy getting bit at the show and another guy (a dvm) giving testomial about being bit at the show too. 

The snakes in the show were all poisonus (except the boa at the end) and the highlight was a guy being fast enough to catch a king cobra with his bare hands.  Tough finding work in thailand, although I did see a waiter position advertised outside of a hotel we passed the other day.

Since nothing really tops a guy catching a single king cobra, a second guy came out with two regular cobras carried by the tail in each hand.  He spent a few minutes goading them into striking at him prior to some boring educational crap about banded kraits and leaf vipers.  Night active show snakes are not as much fun to watch as are daytime show snakes.

Still guy number 1 and guy number 2 have my vote for the cover of lunatic magazine this month.  I would never go back to snake handling after being invenomated.  The bite footage we saw both here and at the rattlesnake museum in new mexico show what an insult to the flesh a snake bite is.  Google an image if you are unfamiliar.  It will make you want to puke. ~ Paul

Happy 2556!

Paul and I are finally getting rested up from Chinese New Year.  While the Chinese Thais are still celebrating by following certain rules, hanging out with family, and going to temples, the official celebration has ended.  Chinese New Year (like so many things here) was confusing and not what wes expected, but we had a great time.  We stayed in Chinatown in the heart of it all.  There were an enormous number of people and vendors and some pretty snazzy street decorations.  They had traditional and modern entertainment and tons of delicious food stands.  We wore our lucky red "year of snake" shirts and left food and beer outside our hotel to keep the dragon away.  The Princess of Thailand showed up causing a delay in festivities so that everyone could show proper respect.  Then at nidnight everyone went home - no fireworks, drunkeness, or anything crazy at all.  On new year's day we had a chinese feast.  Today we visited a snake farm which seems very fitting in the Year of the Snake.  More on that later. Meanwhile, if you haven't washed your hair since Chinese New Year, you might want to wait until after the 14th. ~ Jen

More pictures from the Angkor temple complex

Angkor Wat is just one part of giant ruined city.  Paul and I spent three days exploring it and here are more pics of that for those with an interest.

In Thailand

We've just spent two days in Thailand at the beach.  So far Thailand has been super relaxing and easy travel.  Lots of facilities and services for travellers.  No snokelling so far but we were able to see active sand dollars which I have never seen so far as well as a 2 ft wide jellyfish off the boat.  Headed to Bangkok for Chinese new year today.  We're staying in chinatown for the next two nights if we can find then hotel.  Our last week in Cambodia was very interesting.  Since we wanted to see the forest we were off the beaten tourist track staying in places with little infrastucture for tourists.  Our camping skills came in handy....  Our last hike thru the woods we took a local guide who later found out was a high school student who lived out of town.  Our hike ended when he asked us which way we thought he should go.  Bad enough to get lost but there are still landmines in Cambodia.  Paul ended up with 8 leech bites and it was time to go.  So far Paul has had the most interesting ride so far with him and two other guys (one with a machine gun) on a motorcycle.  All in all, though, Cambodia is trying hard to pull themselves out of poverty and be a tourist destination.  Everyone is an entrepreneur and it seems all kids and about a third of adults are trying to learn English.  Looking at the history of Cambodia, they've come far.  I think in another 5-10 years Cambodia will be much changed again. They're trying harder than any place we've visited. Here's a few more pics- an interesting tree at the palace, giant centipede snacks being sold at the bus station, Dennis and Paul playing snooker near Angkor (neither will be champ anytime soon), the Mekong River at sunset.  ~ Jen

More pics from cambodia

Here's a few more.  Sorry about the long wait.  Interner connection in cambodia was pretty patchy.  These are a mangrove preserve, dance show, warnings in our hotel and visitor in the bathroom at Angkor Wat.

Jungle river cruise.

Jen and I spent the past two days following Mr. Nee on his ranger patrols in one of Cambodia's National Parks.  I am not sure of the park's name exactly and, because names here are so long, I don't think it really makes a difference.  Still, of all of the foreign hikes in the wilderness we have done, this one was surprisingly more true to form than I was thinking it would be.  The river was clear and had fish tank type fish in it.  We did not see any animals or poachers, but no trash or guys living in the park either.  The first day we hiked 10 miles thru the jungle.  The second day we boated up river for a few hours and came back. 

The little town 3 miles from park headquaters where we stayed was charming.  Tourists seemed to be still sort of a new thing and the people treated us as more of a curiosity than a commodity.  A nice change for sure.  The town did still have a "king of the cabbies" and all local transport and market action ran thru him.  He was this small towns answer to Butch from rydell high in the archie comics for sure. 

As we were heading down the river I think I got why people work all the time and spend their leisure on boats.  At work you have to be able to stop on a dime.  When you are captain, you can glide to a stop at your whimsey.  No breaks makes you go at a comfortable pace that makes you relax.  Unless you like the speedboat rush that is. 

Our way out of cambodia involved a ride on a banana truck, a hitched ride in a picck up bed on cambodia's first interballistic missle and a twin scooter ride to the thai border. 

The overland border crossing between thailand and cambodia had its cast of characters.  Crazy heroin girl got on our shared minivan/taxi crying and sweaty.  She slept on the luggage most of the way. To Traat and became surprisingly lucid at every checkpoint.  Jen and I are sure she was "stashing" in other people's luggage as we went.  Takes all kinds.

The cambodians were really friendly and man are theytrying to make their country a tourist destination.  Any casual look into what those folks went thru will make a grown man cry.  That still does not make up for our getting ripped off by goof child on our second forest tour, but that is another matter.  Always pick the older of two potential guides.  Lesson learned.

Pictures from Cambodia

Here are some pictures from rural Cambodia.  It was super beautiful.  Will update you soon.