Koh Samui

After escaping the resorts of Koh Phangan we headed for the slightly more subdued Koh Samui. There isn’t a lot to do on Koh Samui so we rented some mopeds and drove around hunting entertainment. By chance we met a man ‘Mr Newie’ he’s a well-connected guy on the Island, he runs a snake show and is the announcer at Thai kickboxing fights. His shows had finished for the day but he told us where to go to see the boxing.

When we went to watch the kickboxing, we managed to get ringside seats.Not long after, Mr Newie arrived and took his seat which coincidentally was just in front of us. He remembered us and gave me a hand written discount voucher for his snake show. The boxing wasn’t great, quite a few young fighters and several women’s fights, but it was an experience none the less.

When we went looking for the snake show we stumbled upon a small temple which as it happens I had read about in one of the guidebooks. The temple itself wasn’t much to look at but inside there is a mummified monk in a glass cabinet. So you go up take a look at the mummy, sit down and this monk (a live one) chants, shakes your hand and ties a friendship bracelet around your wrist – dutifully we left a small donation.

The snake show was a strange experience. Mr Newie is more than a little crazy. . . and he has some unique catch phrases which he repeats quite frequently. During the show I held a scorpion and a couple of python. The snake handler kissed quite a few of his cobras and Newie suggested that members of the audience might want to try – offering a free taxi to the hospital if the snake bit you!

I didn’t kiss the snake. However that afternoon I did see a man eat a live scorpion and regurgitate it ten minutes later, while another guy pissed off a lot of snakes and deftly dodged their strikes.

After the snake show we went to go get our photo taken with a tiger. I love big cats, tigers are probably my favourite. When my mate Steve went to Thailand he had a picture taken of him spooning a tiger, I was rather envious and thought that I would try and equal or better him. Unfortunately the tiger place we went to was rather tame and the photo shoot was a clinical affair. I have some out of focus pics of me sitting with a tiger – the staff insist on using your camera to take the photos, they did a poor job of it. . . so I wont bother posting it.