The kids and I were keen to have an early morning walk through Lumpini Park - Luke particularly wanted to spot more goannas and Tim and Annika were eager to head for the Food Court for some doughnuts. The doughnuts are not rolled in sugar but Karl described them as "Olie Bollen", a traditional Dutch New Year's treat that Karl's Dad usually makes and which are usually rolled in sugar before consumption. We bought about 15 for 40 Baht. We are trying to keep the kids' sugar consumption to a minimum but finding it difficult. Even without sugar, these doughnuts are tasty and filling. The rest of breakfast was some grilled pork on sticks (10 Baht per stick).
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| Doughnutters. | |
Lumpini Park in the morning is a happening place. Lots of workers cleaning and sweeping and other people jogging or sharing breakfast. Guards are busy pushing cars (without hand brakes on) to make car spaces accessible in the car park with triple or double parked cars. Most driveways seem to have a guard of some sort, dressed immaculately in their uniforms and always ready to greet passers by. We are used to seeing these uniformed people everywhere now and hardly notice them whereas initially we did comment on their presence.
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| Park Sweeper |
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| One of the Lumpini Park lakes |
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We delayed our plans to visit the Snake Farm until the afternoon as Annika wasn't feeling well. Poor girl: if it isn't headaches it is belly ache for her and she sometimes feels she's had enough. Fortunately, with rest and determination the kids and I headed out for our walk to Bangkok's Snake Farm. Our local lane way and shortcut to Soi Ratchadamri was packed with lunch time crowds as little eateries opened...people everywhere...guess it is Monday again.
The Snake Farm (200 Baht for adults and 50 Baht for children) was well worth the entry fee. We looked around the "serpentarium" and me being a bit of a "snake-o-phobe , recoiled at some of the exhibits. Squirming snakes on trees and in open pits made me reslolute in my decision NOT to swim in a lake in Thailand! The indoor exhibit was terrific and we enjoyed a few short videos about the life cycle of snakes and their venom. The snake farm is part of a Red Cross set up to collect venom and make anti-venene and also care for some protected species of snakes.
The Snake Handling Show was well worthwhile and presented in both English and Thai. The King Cobras and other venomous snakes were handled with great courage and with only gumboots as safety gear, the skills of the snake handlers were even more impressive. We saw a handler hop into a pit and retrieve a couple of snakes!!!
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| King Cobra - I didn't realise they were THIS big! |
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| Tim with Albino Burmese Python - "very tame" |
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| Annika with same tame snake |
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| This snake weighed about 10 kgs and Luke struggled to wear it! |
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| And brave me who had never before held a snake! |
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| Family snake shot! Karl stayed back at the condo. |
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We really had a lovely afternoon and were very impressed by the whole operation. Karl decided not to go with us and walked to a local veggie market instead. We are not sure if he would have handled this python or not! Luke was further impressed that we saw two monocled cobras who are part of his Safeway Animal Card Collection which he studies nightly! I took the opportunity to ask the commentator about the snake we saw in Phuket and he thought it was probably an ornate glider snake as it moved so swiftly!
We found a big bag of passionfruit for 50 Baht on our way home. Now thinking we should have bought the big bag of rose apples, too, which were only 40 Baht. The boys enjoyed some more grilled pork on sticks on our way home. How quickly we have learned where to find food and at which times!
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| Re-fuelling for the walk home. |
We had our nightly swim in the beautiful pool that no-one else ever uses! The big kids and Karl and I finished watching Alec Guinness in The Bridge over River Kwai in preparation for our trip up north some time soon.
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