Snake farm thrills and enthralls

Have you ever wondered how much venom a cobra’s bite packs? One encounter with this snake’s deadly fangs is enough to kill around 50,000 mice. Are you interested in having a giant python draped around your neck while your parents take a picture? Well, if reptiles are your thing, Dong Tam Snake Farm is the place for you.
It is situated 12km before My Tho along National Highway 1A from HCM City.
"The 30ha farm has the country’s only snake museum and has more than 52 species found in Asian countries like India, Thailand, China, Cambodia, Laos and Viet Nam," our tour guide said.
"It was started in 1977 since there was a need for Viet Nam to develop anti-venin. At that time, older people in the area said breeding venomous snakes is stupid because they are dangerous.
"But during the American War, the Vietnamese soldiers cooked rice porridge with venomous snakes to improve the health of wounded soldiers and made anti-venin for snake bites," he claimed.
It was founded by Dr Tran Van Duoc and is now one of the country’s largest centres extracting snake venom for export. The park also raises snakes for research, makes other snake-based medicines and products like wallets and belts using snake skin, and grows medicinal plants.
"While the main purpose of the facility is to make anti-venom and undertake research, its place as a prime tourist attraction cannot be denied," the guide said even as we saw the signboard saying Trai Ran Dong Tam (Dong Tam Snake Farm).
We were ushered into a room to watch a 15-minute video on the history of the farm. It said that around 500 people come every year to Dong Tam after being bitten by snakes, most of them poor residents from the Cuu Long (Mekong) Delta region who usually come when their situation becomes critical.
A park guide then took us to the python enclosure which housed dozens of large creatures in wire mesh cages.
Visitors can hold a live python in their hands to take photographs.
"Most of the snakes and animals here are wild. Only one python is tame or docile enough to be taken out of its cage and handled," the guide said.
Venomous
"If you are afraid of snakes, you shouldn’t get too close to the cages," she said before leading us to see the snakes close up. They were held in small cages made of wire mesh.
There were a large number of snakes, many of them highly venomous.
One of the most beautiful and interesting was the king cobra, the world’s largest poisonous snake, which grows up to 5.5m. It had a giant hood and pale yellow bands down the length of the body.
"This species is found mostly in forests in Southeast Asia and parts of India. They are very aggressive and dangerous. Their diet primarily consists of other snakes. They are fully capable of killing a human within five minutes with a single bite," the guide said.
We followed the guide to an open pit where we had the opportunity to touch a species of non-venomous water snake. They were brown and grey with bellies ranging in colour from white to yellow.
"These snakes hunt among plants at the water’s edge, looking for small fish, frogs, and worms. But they will strike at humans when provoked," she said.
She also showed me some fast-moving and active green snakes with small leaf-shape heads which were superbly camouflaged among the leaves. We had to stare for a while before making them out among the leaves. They were a brilliant emerald colour.
She pulled out one for us to take photos.
"The one with an orange-red tail is venomous. Those with green tails are non-venomous," she said.
There were also a few other animals like ostriches, yellow tortoises, a leopard, crocodiles, and birds kept in cages. A large, enclosed area with trees was used to feed a few Tibetan bears.
Our guide from HCM City said snakes are "yin" animals. The farm has "yang" animals just to maintain the balance, he explained.
The farm sold products like snake medicinal wine and genuine snake leather wallets, belts, and purses.
"Some Chinese believe that the skin of the snake, when used to make wallets, helps a person keep his money – as if the snake offers protection for the cash," he said.
A chemist’s shop sold Cobratox, a cream made from venom said to be good for rheumatism. It costs VND12,000 for around 10 grams.