For about $30 a taxi driver in Chiang Mai will drive you around all day, however far you like, waiting for you to go to whatever shows or shopping you wish. As we entered the King Cobra snake show, we were keenly greeted by staff, “C’mon lady-boys, come and see snake show!”  OK then. The warm up was the younger snake handlers with various smaller local snakes. At one point a fire-cracker was let off as a short length of rope was tossed into the audience at the feet of a Japanese lady who was instantly screaming.

Then out came the King Cobras. The scale is hard to see in the photo but they are as thick as my forearm. We were assured that no one within lifesaving driving distance had any ant-venom and anyone bitten would die within 30 minutes. We assumed they’d been milked of venom before the show.

So the Snake Man worked with two of these simultaneously, repeatedly leaning over to kiss one. The compere worked a PA system with the disco music volume being lowered for comments such as, “Snake Man, he so crazy,” and “Snake man want to kiss you, Watch out Snake man.” After suitable photo opportunities, the laughing Snake Man jostled the still rearing cobra in front of us, about a foot away, then milked it, showing that there was actually a large amount of venom there.

It’s a hard way to earn a living. The audience tossed some money into the ring. We had the usual nature park photo of us with a medium sized python around our shoulders, then it was off to Tiger Kingdom!