King Cobra Village snake boxing....

Located in north east Thailand, Isaan province is little known, overlooked by most tourists, it boasts no indigenous tribal people, has zero beaches; yet it is the capitol of Thai silk, home to spectacular National Parks, origin of Maw Lam music, & location of Ban Khok Sa-Nga, King Cobra village. Two hours on the main route from home, 20 minutes down a small two lane, then 10 minutes on a dirt road lands you in a small village where the main attraction is an elevated stage surrounded by four small bleachers. As we arrived the Maw Lam music was pumping accentuated by a lively female MC. Eight Thai women came out from behind an enclosure with large snakes around their necks & shoulders. As they took their place on stage, they made two rows front & back & began dancing to the music with the snakes around them. Their stage act was punctuated at the end as they held the snake's head & put it into their mouth, this was the beginning of our King Cobra experience.
As the music started up again, two men mounted the stage from the side, one with a stick, the end hooked & used for handling poisonous snakes. The other man casually took his time taking off his shoes, pulling up his socks. The man with the stick walks to where there are a number of wooden boxes, flipping the lid open & pulling out a snake with a very large girth & easily measuring 10 feet long, dark in color with off-white bands around the body. The snake glides half the distance of the stage, the female MC is warming up, the music is winding up & the man with no shoes makes his way towards the snake grabs its tail & pulls the snake towards him. All of a sudden the snake rears up one-third of its length, agitated, a hood expands around the head, it's the famous & feared King Cobra!
There is a perceptible excitement now in the MC's voice, the man in socks is in a crouch & makes a move at the snake, the pitch of the music heightens, the cobra strikes as the man dodges backward, finds new footing & throws a punch which lands on the snake, the MC's voice has gained momentum & treats this like a major sporting event with a blow-by-blow commentary. The snake makes it's move & tries to slither away only to have its tail grabbed & pulled back, it uses the backward momentum & strikes at the shoeless man who sidesteps the attack & delivers a glancing blow downward atop the snake's head. The two face off in a very mesmerizing way, the cobra rearing up with full hood swaying from side-to-side, its opponent doing the same, slowly he reaches out towards the snake until he actually has his fingers around the snake holding it, lets go turns his back to the snake & bows to the crowd.
These cobras don't spit their venom like some cobras do, but they are no less deadly. The show features a few more boxing matches before the last act, a man with the largest cobra of the day, wrapped around his neck & shoulders. Some of his antic have to be seen, such as putting the cobra's head in his mouth & then down his pants until half the body disappears. And yes, that's a cobra that Becca & I are holding, she stepped forward first while I was hemming & hesitating. -TLC