Day 3 Mom...DO NOT READ!

So we woke up this morning to rain, not surprisingly. We made it a lazy morning, slept late and took our time getting ready. We decided since we couldn't enjoy the beach, to do some sightseeing. We had seen a place where a guy does tricks with cobras and even kisses a King Cobra, he's an internet hit.

We found out where this was, luckily just on the other side of the island in Chalong, and hopped on Sasha for a quick ride in a light drizzle.

We arrived at the snake farm and made our way to the Phuket King Cobra Show. It was a little shack with a sunken ring in the middle and a set of bleachers on 2 sides. There was one family joining us for the show.

The guy from the videos and pictures came out and gave a bow. He then proceeded to pull out 3 Thai cobras. These were the 2nd deadliest snakes he'd be playing with. If they bite you, you have a whole 20 minutes before you would die. They're very common all over Thailand, especially in the jungles of Phuket.

It was a good thing we saw this show after our night scooter ride through some jungle areas.

He did some tricks, mainly teasing them and getting them to strike at him. It was pretty cool to watch. The bleachers were less than 10 feet away from the snakes so we were on top of the action.

The handlers then brought one of the cobras in the stands for us to touch. Vi was too nervous to touch it but of course I had to feel. It's cool being that close to something so deadly.

The second snake (3 of them) a new handler pulled out, also venomous, was smaller but would coil up and jump at the handler. If you were bit by this lovely snake, you would have 30 minutes to get help before dying.

This handler, for his finale, bent down as if to kiss the snake but then bit the snake and held it in his mouth. I then went down in the ring with him and took a picture with him with the snake in his mouth.

Finally, the big time. The first handler returned and pulled out a 4 meter (roughly 12 feet) long King Cobra. Wow! The cobra immediately rose up looking for a fight. If this King Cobra were to bite you, you'd have 15 minutes before death.

Oh yea, I forgot to mention. All of these snakes still had their fangs and were still producing venom. How do I know this you ask? Well, they brought the snakes around to show the people the fangs and then got them to drip venom on this metal thing. Just to let us know there was a real danger.

Anyways, after a couple of minutes of playing with the cobra, he set up for the Kiss of Death. He seemed to lure the cobra in to a relaxed state and slowly kissed the cobra on top of its head. I have to say, I was nervous watching this.

We walked around the grounds and saw some more snakes then decided to go get some lunch. Nothing like watching people handle 12 feet long cobras to work up an appetite.

We continued towards the town of Chalong to see what we could find.

We decided to stop at a little place that ended up being a gem of a find. From the outside, it looks like another runned down restaurant ran by locals. Inside, it has an awesome, traditional Thai set up. Everything is off the ground. It's really cool and you should just check out the pictures to get the idea.

The food here was amazing. I had garlic chicken that was incredible. Vi had a seafood Thai fried rice that was also great. Everything was so great we even returned for dinner.

After lunch, we went across the street and Vi got to try her first milkshake, strawberry. She was in love. We've decided that she will put on a lot of weight her first year in America simply because of the food.

Once we had finished the milkshake, we came back to the hostel for a nap. It was still a rainy day so it was perfect for napping.

We woke up from the nap in the mood for some adventure. We got back on Sasha and drove around to some areas we hadn't been before. We did some more shopping and after not being able to find an interesting looking restaurant, went back to Chalong to the place we ate lunch at.

We returned to find that the restaurat was packed with people and there was only one place to sit. The great thing about this place is that only one person there spoke English and everyone eating there were Thai, no tourists. Everyone kind of watched us sit down and the 2 tables across from us even attempted to talk with us a bit and help translate to a waiter.

This time we got garlic prawns, fried catfish in margo sauce (incredibly spicy) and Thai spicy soup with prawns. All of it was amazing. Thai food is great, although unbelievably spicy. We loved dinner and Vi loved the milkshake so much, we had a 2nd on for dessert.

We made our way back to the hostel but we stopped off to do some more shopping. I was very happy with some little things I found for Christmas gifts for the family. We found some interesting things last night that put us in a good mood.

We got back to the hostel, showered and went to sleep. It was a relaxed day but today we're leaving the island and going to Bangkok which should be quite a bit busier.