Better late than never!
I'm writing this on June 27, so we've been back for nearly two weeks, but don't worry, I still wake up at all weird hours of the night and my stomach will never be the same. ;)
Now I have the challenge of piecing together the last few days of the trip from memory--making a note to prioritize blogging in real-time for future adventures. Okay, let's give it a whirl.
6/13 Bangkok Day 2
With our Thai support team/drivers officially off the clock, our group was truly on their own for the next several days. We were thrilled to discover that two students had signed up for a Muay Thai training class and several others bought tickets to another Muay Thai fight (a much larger spectacle compared to the one we witnessed in Chiang Mai).
Keller and Lawson at their Muay Thai training class (photo credit: Keller)
The must-do activity on my list this morning was the Red Cross Snake Farm. I have had a weird little obsession with snakes since I was a wee little lass. I was obsessed with Rikki Tikki Tavi* and the cobra scene in The Black Stallion even though I could not for the life of me tell you the plot of this film or book.
*note: as an adult, I now understand that Rudyard Kipling and many of his writings perpetuate harmful imperialist and racist views. I can appreciate a snarky little mongoose going HAM on a cobra, but most of his works and philosophical stances should be challenged.
Okay, back to snake farm--
Located in the very cool Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute, the snake farm conducts research, provides educational outreach, milks snakes for antivenin (note--that is the correct term, although "antivenom" is also used interchangeably even though it's not a real word), offers snake handling demonstrations, offers an exhibit of snake skeletons and cadavers and explains biological processes, and the farm houses a variety of venomous and non-venomous species of snake.
Credit to Andrew "Megas' Russell for my oft-repeated anecdote about handling snakes:
We may be familiar with the saying:
"Red on yellow kills a fellow
Red on black venom lack"
However, people mess this up all the time. For example:
"Red on yellow seems pretty mellow
Red on black might attack"
So what do we learn from this? Here's an updated saying:
"Whether it's green or brown or purple--DON'T TOUCH SNAKES."
Fun facts:
- 85% of snakebites happen on the hand because ding dongs are trying to touch snakes
- research varies but studies generally present that 60-75% percent of bites happen to males
So what's our takeaway? DON'T TOUCH SNAKES. FELLAS, DEFINITELY DON'T TOUCH SNAKES.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. Also, this is not the first time I've dropped the "don't touch snakes" mantra in the blog--apparently I've been singing this tune since Colombia in 2019... If you've ever wondered how long it takes to run out of original blog content, the answer is apparently about 20 years.
Okay, back to the snake farm. I could really spend like 15 blog posts just about the snake farm but there are a few other adventures to cover, so I'll try and limit it to pictures and a video of the snake milking.
Video of monocled cobra being milked
Chris, Kellie, and Cory at the snake farm
Banded Krait - member of the cobra family
Danger noodle being milked
Finished process of extracting venom
Skeleton of a king cobra, which can grow in excess of 17 ft!
King cobra with its skeleton on the inside
If you find yourself in Bangkok and are not terrified of snakes, I would highly recommend this experience!
Okay, what did we do after snake farm...
It was raining pretty heavily when we finished up at the farm, so we sheltered at the institute for a little while to let the weather clear up. Chris headed back toward the hotel, but I wanted to take Cory to Thipsamai, the oldest Pad Thai noodle house in Bangkok--we put the invitation out to the whole crew but no one took us up this time. As every student on the trip will tell you, I'm incredibly ambivalent about pad thai as a dish. It's...fine. Pad see ew is better. That said, this restaurant is worth the visit and their pad thai is objectively better than most.
Pad thai
View of the restaurant
View of the restaurant
After lunch, we checked in with folks to get updates on their adventures --folks had spent their day touring wats, visiting cafes, and enjoying the sites and sounds offered in Bangkok.
Students at a cafe
Students at Wat Pho (known for its giant reclining Buddha)
(this photo might have been from 6/12) - enjoying the sunset
Cory and I tried to catch the group that was touring Wat Pho, but we just missed them. I cover Wat Pho extensively in this post, so check it out. That said, the last time I was at Wat Pho in 2023, I didn't realize its significance related to Nuad Thai (traditional Thai massage).
Added to Unesco’s Intangible Culture Heritage of Humanity list in 2019, this ancient healing method practised by Buddhist monks at the temple uses a blend of stretching, yoga and acupressure techniques to relax the body. Unlike Swedish massage or Hawaiian lomi lomi massage, where the patient is a passive participant, in Thai massage, the patient – who remains fully clothed – bends, stretches and moves their limbs with the help of the therapist to boost flexibility. Some therapists in Thailand will even step on the patient’s back to more deeply massage the muscles, although it’s not a technique used by all.
Chiselled into the marble on the Wat Pho plaques are representations of sen lines – crisscrossing energy paths on the body that therapists follow when placing their hands, feet or elbows on a person – which are believed to be conduits of “life force”. Each plaque features the outline of a human figure with features such as a rib cage or spine, and the network of thin black lines is intersected with dots, depicting acupressure points. Each acupressure point is annotated with a label noting which ailment it corresponds to. In Nuad Thai, it’s thought that the body comprises four elements (earth, water, wind and fire), which the therapist rebalances by manipulating the acupressure points to remove any energy blockages from the sen lines.
In the mid-19th Century, before the introduction of modern medicine in Thailand, the 16th-Century temple served as a centre for medical education, which included Nuad Thai as part of its therapies. A more formalised traditional Thai medicine school was opened in the grounds in 1957, and when King Bhumibol visited the school in 1961 he suggested Nuad Thai become a separate curriculum at the school, which it did in 1962. Today, students from all over the world come here to study the practice; and while Nuad Thai can now be found in spas across the globe, the soul of the therapy hasn’t changed much from its humble beginnings.
Pretty cool stuff. We opted for a 30 minute foot massage at Wat Pho before returning to the hotel, and it was quite nice as you might imagine.
Okay, last thing on our agenda for this day was a Dinner and River Cruise along the Chao Phraya River aboard the Chao Phraya Princess. We opted for the Indian buffet cruise instead of the international buffet, and we would make this decision again 100% of the time. While this is arguably the most "touristy" thing we did the entire trip, I would actually advocate for this to become imbedded in the MTSE itinerary. It was a really nice way to get to see various cultural sites in Bangkok, the company took care of all hotel transportation, the food and entertainment were **awesome** and the price was about $35 USD per person. You can hardly eat a non-buffet Indian dinner in SLC for that price, and it doesn't come with a ship or dancing! We made some friends with folks visiting from India who were celebrating their honeymoon and they taught us dances (which I replicated poorly) and it was truly one of the highlights of this trip.
Our new friends!
Cruising down the Chao Phraya river
All you can eat, baby!
Okay, that wraps up the penultimate day. One more day to cover and then we put this puppy back into blog-hibernation for another year!
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