Flood, snakes and crocodiles
Trip Start
Oct 05, 2010
1
16
29
Trip End
Jun 01, 2011
Where I stayed
Ko Samui, Thailand
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Our ferry arrived to Krabi on time and from there on everything went unbelievebly smoothly. We got a bus ticket to Surat Thani from the pier, after 5 minutes of waiting were we driven to the bus and off we were. At Surat Thani they drove us in front of another tourist office and we got the next bus ticket to Don Sak pier and a ferry ticket to Ko Samui. Everything worked like a charm. All the trip had gone so smoothly that we hadn't even had time to buy something to eat. Finally, seconds before starvation, we got some pies at Don Sak. After one and a half hours with ferry, plus 40 minutes with local taxi on the island, we arrived at our prebooked hostel.
On our way we saw a newspaper, where on the first page was an artikkel about some horrible flood. After some reading we found out that there had been huge rains in the south Thailand. One whole city was overflooded, also areas around it, more than 800 000 families were victims of the downpour. It aslo said that Phuket had gotten several mudslide warnings. That time we had been on Phi Phi (which is just in the middle of the overflooded area and Phuket) and didn't experience anything else than some light rain. On our way we saw the overflooded fields, householdings and even highways.
Ko Samui in the 5th largest island in Thailand. It is a part if a 3 island combination, which are popular amongst tourists and backpackers. We decided to stay here just for one day. Since the taxi prices here were rather high, we tried to find some activities near our hostel. And the winner was Ko Samui's Crocodile and Snake Farm, with their shows including both types of reptiles. It took 30 minutes walk and many times of asking for directions to get there. We got there few minutes after the snake show had started. The show itself was very impressive and the snake trainers managed to keep viewers intrest up through the whole show. It included cobra, one black and yellow snake, whose name we cannot remember and king cobra- all of them poisonous (one bite from king cobra and you are dead in 10 minutes) The trainer teased them and dodged their attacks. He also kissed every one of them on the forehead. The final act was that he grabbed one of these black and yellow snakes in each of his arms and then tried to grab the third one with his mouth.... when the snake bit him in his cheek?! He didn't mind it very much, wiped away the blood and went on and grabbed the snake with his mouth anyways!
The other show was the crocodile show. We had about half an hour between these two shows, so we used the time to examine all the different animals and reptiles at the farm. Snakes, crocodiles, apes and many others- it was like a mini zoo. The crocodile show was even more exciting- the creatures are incredebly big and fast! When the trainers teased them, then we never even saw when the crocodiles bit, we only heard it- so fast were they. The show included sitting on a crocs back, holding a small one, putting hand inside its mouth and even putting head inside its mouth?! It was really interesting, since the trainers educated us with facts about their pets all the way.
On the next morning there was another early wake up and another ferry to take us to Ko Pha Ngan.
