HAVE YOU EVER GONE KING COBRA VILLAGE?

Yes, I have. This village is near my hometown. The self-styled ‘King Cobra Village’ of Ban Khok Sa-Nga has a thing about snakes. Locals rear hundreds of the reptiles, and most houses have some in boxes under their houses. The strange custom began when a herb farmer Phu Yai Ken Yongla began putting on snake shows to attract customers to the village, and the art of breeding and training snakes has been nurtured ever since. Today the King Cobra Club (donations expected; 8am-6pm) hosts short shows where handlers taunt snakes and tempt fate: they often lose, as the many missing fingers show. Medicinal herbs are still sold and other animals are on display in pitiful little cages.