Snake village in Isan

Every year I flee Songkran and often I go to Surin or Roi Et. We agreed to leave at six in the morning and my Thai travel companion is a man of the clock. Before six I hear his car.

I need to hurry. We take an alternate route of smaller roads, starting with Soi Huay Yai. Two things stand out at this point. A low-hanging morning mist, which sometimes quite obscures the view. And the fact that awakening dogs apparently now take a morning walk. Both phenomena do not make me feel relaxed.

The haste at departure is probably the reason that 200 kilometers further I am dismayed to find that I have left my glasses at home. A briefcase with seven books, with cryptograms, kakuros and sudokas and no reading glasses. My panic lasts only a moment, because luckily I have a spare pair of glasses with me. I look it up and luckily I quickly find the small almost square box with a completely foldable copy. Only the weather has affected the glass. Nothing to see. Now I feel really unhappy.

Until I remember playing bridge with Corrie Bik years ago. She used tiny reading glasses. Glasses of three quarters of an inch by three inches. The whole thing, when closed, fit into a thin metal tube. I asked him to try it on and noticed that the glasses had exactly the strength I needed. Without any ulterior motive, I expressed my admiration for this handy device. Corrie immediately said, then you can have him, I have more at home. I then hid this thin tube in the secret compartment on the inside of a bum bag and it had never come out of there since. I took it out and I was saved. I could read this trip.

At two o'clock we reach hotels Thong Tarin in Surin (880 Baht including a good breakfast). We have lunch and my traveling companion goes to his wife and children in a village 60 kilometers from here. I'm taking it easy. Cryptograms, other puzzles and Villa des roses by Willem Elsschot. The next day the same pattern, but now with De disillusionment of Elsschot. My travel companion comes back and we eat in the evening in the large garden in front of the hotel, made pleasant by country music.

The next morning I read 'The Redemption'. It will be clear that I have the collected works of Willem Elsschot with me. I bought them after reading Vic van der Reit's biography about him. I didn't find that biography very interesting, but it made me realize that I had hardly read any work by this well-known writer. Highlight in description and humor are undoubtedly Glues. The following The leg I found less. Then the absolute top with Cheese. After that follows good, but less work. In the evening I eat a Filet Mignon in the hotel restaurant. It's almost funny how bad the Western cuisine is here. A complete bad product.

After another day of reading and puzzle thinking, my traveling companion comes back at seven in the morning to tell me that he has forgotten his bag of clothes. So let's go back to his village first. After an hour's drive he calls his wife, who tells her that she has just left a hospital, where her youngest offspring, a few months old, has spent the night due to a high fever. They are just about to get on the back of a friend's motorcycle. Their four-year-old son. Of course you catch cold, so our arrival is convenient. We only stay in the village for a short time, consisting of one street. His parents and family live on one side, and his wife's on the other. Everything clear. I take a family photo and then we leave for Roi Et, where we check into the Phetcharat Hotel (660 Baht) at one o'clock.

A day pool. My traveling companion tells me that he saw an acquaintance of mine from Pattaya in the dining room. This is Louis Kleijne, who lives near me in Pattaya and whose wife, Mout, is from this province. That is why they often stay in this hotel. In the evening we eat in a nearby restaurant called 101. A large garden with countless tables, which are practically all occupied. There is a band playing, which plays old Thai pop music in an extremely enthusiastic way, but, more strikingly, well-known country and western music. The composition of the band is very special. Apart from the usual guitars and electronic organ, an old bearded man plays ภาษาไทย the violin. A young lad plays the cello and a third man plays the saxophone. It is more the enthusiasm that stands out than the musical result. Let's say the songs are easily recognizable. The food is fine. After thus pleasing the taste and the hearing we return to the hotel and coincidence does not exist. In the central hall of the hotel we meet Pattaya's musical prodigy, Ben Hansen, with a friend. Everyone apparently on the run from the Songkran terror of Pattaya.

Finally the day on which the title of this story is based. On ThailandBlog I read a piece about an attraction near Khon Kaeng. Like Surin has its elephant village, Khon Kaeng has a snake village, officially called Cobra Village. We can't find the village, Ban Khok Sa-Nga, on the map, but Louis's wife knows this area and she knows how to tell us exactly where it should be. We drive a hundred kilometers to Khon Kaeng and take the main road to Udon.

We now see blue signs with the announcement Cobra Village. 35 kilometers to the north we see a sign that we have to turn right. We can't, but we can make a U-turn. That is apparently the intention, because after a short distance we see a white sign with Cobra Village. Turn left and then another 16 kilometers. We have been in Esan for several days now and the beginning of the rainy season has manifested itself with some heavy showers. What a change in appearance. A rough and barren landscape becomes a beautiful green area in a few days. I think green is the color with the most shades.

After 16 kilometers we enter an abandoned village, but a helpful Thai tells us that we have to drive a little further. There we are welcomed by a loudly screaming Thai, who tells us through immense loudspeakers how unique this snake show is. On a stage in the middle of stands, the snakes do all kinds of tricks. For example, they can raise themselves up a meter. After the show, the spectators can have themselves photographed with a snake around their neck, for a fee, of course. Or they can force luck by petting the snake with a hundred baht note.

Outside the covered area are all kinds of sights to admire. A lake with crocodiles. All kinds of cages with one snake at a time. I don't have the impression that blows are bred here, but that this is a shelter for captured animals. I'm not sure if I should recommend this attraction. Let me put it this way: if you do drive from Khon Kaeng to Udon, it is quite nice to leave the highway for a while. Don't drive 200 kilometers for it. Because the signage is rather difficult, here are the coordinates: 16◦41'39.81”N and 102◦55'30.93”E.

On the way back we stop at a small shrine on a mountain, surrounded by thousands of statues and statues of elephants. Placing such an image would force happiness and that is never gone.

Back in Roi Et I read the latest Book Week gift, The Crow by Kader Abdulman. A nice biographical work of someone who fought his way and then found it.

The next day we drive back to Surin, because the family will drive to Pattaya. That happens again a day later. I look back on particularly calm days without annoying water violence.