Maids1 Cobras 0

[Julian2]

Teach the beggar to come sneaking around my back door.

It was longer than she's tall as well.

 

[Torneyboy]

 

 

Picture: J. Bulian

 

Naja kaouthia (Monocled Cobra)

Thai: ngoo how thai

 

Length: Up to 150 cm

 

Occurrence: Whole of Thailand, quite common

 

Behaviour/habitat/appearance:

Naja kaouthia lives at ground level in the lowlands, although it can climb and swim well. The snake is just as at home in wood and bush areas as in plantations, rice fields, villages and towns. The Monocle Cobra is active during the day and night. They do prefer to be nocturnal. These snakes feed on rodents, frogs, toads, ducklings and chicks. If threatened, these snakes erect themselves, spread out their neck and hiss. If you remain calm, they usually flee the scene. The colour of the snake can vary from light beige to dark brown to grey.

 

 

 

 

 

Strong poison, deadly!

[Torneyboy]

You don't want to get to close to them..

[Vintage_Kwai]

Did the maid cook it?

 

(Ngu Hau Pad Phet is quite a well-known dish in the 'jungle' restaurants. The only thing I could taste was the chili).

[CTO]

Nice backyard! Is that a Kingswood in the background?

[Julian2]

Rodeo... better known here as a D-Max.

Vin Kwai the last I saw the snake it was tom yam ngu.

The worst part of it is that I strongly suspect the cobra was responsible for eradicating the mouse plague that was driving me nuts a couple of months back.

[Torneyboy]

You not worried about the snakes...?

[Julian2]

I'm not a timid little Sydney boy TB, I grew up in the bush.

 

(The Torneyboy Story)

 

I am sitting in my dingy little office, where a stingy

Ray of sunlight struggles feebly down between the houses tall,

And the foetid air and gritty of the dusty, dirty city

Through the open window floating, spreads its foulness over all

 

And in place of lowing cattle, I can hear the fiendish rattle

Of the tramways and the 'buses making hurry down the street,

And the language uninviting of the gutter children fighting,

Comes fitfully and faintly through the ceaseless tramp of feet.

 

And the hurrying people daunt me, and their pallid faces haunt me

As they shoulder one another in their rush and nervous haste,

With their eager eyes and greedy, and their stunted forms and weedy,

For townsfolk have no time to grow, they have no time to waste.

[Central Scrutinizer]

Julian,

 

Around 10 weeks ago or so Sis killed two of the cobras in a matter of two days. First day the male (smaller, but a good five foot long), next day a female at around six foot long. Both entered the teacher next door's house and were seen there before the students came to class. Some construxction nearby cleared some wooded lots that they had been living on it is suspected. The maid next door has a habit of leaving the back door open when she cleans the house.

 

Cent

[Julian2]

The serfs are going to be driven at whip's end to clean the place up tomorrow. The early rains have sent the grass up and the weeds are going crazy. There's a pile of junk I've had the evil eye on for a year now and tomorrow it's going.

Rodents and vermin love those types of hiding places and snakes feed on them.

If I don't get it done now the whole idle lot will disappear for the Songkran holiday.