I made a little walkway with bricks leading into our front gate. After everything was set I was moving some dirt around to “landscape” it a bit when I saw Marie frantically running to me with her nine month old baby bouncing in arms, exclaiming, “There’s a big snake on our porch! He was only a half meter away from Luan [the baby]! Luan was kind of freaking and then I saw it! He’s always so friendly and playful with all the creatures we’ve met here but he didn’t want anything to do with the snake!” I believe this must be due to some sort of deep seated genetic memory. So, I grab the only tool I had nearby, a garden hoe, and ran to her bungalow at the neighboring guesthouse, and proceeded slowly up the stairs. She said it didn’t move much. Perhaps it was digesting something. I pinned it down with the hoe behind it’s head. Then I could get a good look. It was long and green and yep, the diamond shaped head indicated it was poisonous unlike the cupped hand head shape of non-poisonous snakes. Turns out it was a ‘green tree viper’. I was always told that if this snake bites you death can be as quick as, “Oh! I just got bit by a … ” xx. Apparently, that was incorrect information as it is much more painful with necrosis of the surrounding tissue as you sink into a life threatening situation. Anyway about it, not fun. It wiggled hard to get away but I ground the hoe in to it and cut it. I then carefully grabbed it behind the head where it couldn’t bite me and removed it from the porch. Although wiki says that it only grows about 70cm or 30in, still I had to hold it up so it wouldn’t drag the ground. That’s when we realized it was as long as I am tall and I’m taller than 30 inches! We didn’t think to take a photo before I threw it in the river. Some Laos fishermen confirmed that this was a very, very bad snake.
So, what have you all been doing during lockdown?