Living out in the sticks we get to see a lot of snakes and most of them are harmless rat snakes - like I tell my students 'Only 10% of snakes in Thailand are venomous, so don't kill them or be afraid of them'.
There was a 'minor problem' on Friday night. We had in our 'courtyard' (a bit between the house and the kitchen) a Spitting Cobra - one of the world's more venomous snakes.
Rubble (aka snake wrangler) alerted us to same, and being the brave idiot that he is, had a go. The net result was a cobra with only half a tail and absolutely no sense of humour. Also Rubble was half blinded (temporarily, thank heavens) and feeling slightly sorry for himself. Somewhere under the bicycles lurks this beast. We know. We watched it get under there, but before we did, Mr.VS tried to reason with it, with a long-handled dustpan in his hand. I was ready with a tea-towel to throw over its head
Well, I thought it was a good idea at the time. Mr.VS was just about to sweep it to safety and it turned around, looked at him with venom in its eyes, never mind its teeth, and did the 'hoodie' bit with its neck. It was, I must admit, a little bit scary. I think it's gone now - or it's died. Poor thing, he was only trying to catch the rats...The problem is that you only know that it's a cobra when it gets angry, and it does its 'hoodie' bit. Apparently two out of the three cobras in Thailand are the 'spitting' kind. As long as you're 2 metres away you're safe.
BTW: We're moving to Nakhon Pathom in May. Does anyone want to rent our house? 3,000 baht a month - must love nature....
VS
