Morning at the Snake Farm.

  The 7th and 8th grade students at Noble Academy in Minneapolis, where I volunteer, gave me a list of potential photo ops in Thailand.  On that list was King Cobra.  A few years ago I had a 120 pound python draped around my neck.  I promised my family I wouldn't do anything dangerous on this trip.  But even if I hadn't made that promise handling a cobra wasn't going to happen.

  There are cobras in the wild here but I'll never encounter a wild one in either Bangkok or Ayutthaya.  Therefore, this morning I walked over to the Snake Farm which is several blocks from my guesthouse.  It would have been a very short walk if I'd known that the snakes were on the grounds of a hospital, or if I could read Thai.  

  At the Snake Farm there is a large display of lives snakes.  There I found a King Cobra swallowing a huge frog.  I got my pictures and then stayed for a demonstration of milking poisonous snakes of their venom.  The farm breeds snakes and the venom produced is shipped all over the world.  There is also a large research facility on the grounds that studies venom and its antidotes.