Want to avoid being bitten by a snake in Thailand? Watch how this guy does it
A wonderful video surfaced on YouTube a few months ago of a Thai man being attacked by a snake in a police station in northern Thailand.
At the time, I meant to write about it in the context of how to avoid being bitten by a snake in Thailand, but then I forgot.
I had my memory jogged this morning, however, when this discussion about the incident popped up on Reddit.
A discussion that showed a whole lot of fascination with not only how this guy managed to avoid being bitten, but what you can do to avoid being bitten by a snake in Thailand too.
Snake enters a Thailand police station and attacks a man
In the video, you see Apichat Cheautong, 45, calmly waiting for a police officer in a police station somewhere in Thailand.
A few seconds in, and a 6-foot-long rat snake calmly slithers into the station, and moves across the floor directly towards the man. Right before it arrives next to him, he notices it and jumps. Startled.
At that point, the snake strikes.
What follows is a few seconds of Apichat, who apparently is an amputee with a prosthetic leg, stomping on the snake as it wildly thrashes around. As it begins to wind itself around his leg, however, he grabs its tail and imprisons its head beneath his feet.
The Thai man then calmly reaches down, grabs the snake behind its head and stands up, now holding the snake by both ends.
As a Thai police officer appears, is shown the snake and told where the man just got it from, the officer motions for him to take it outside.
Laughing, Khun Apichat then took the snake outside, because yes it was still alive, and released it at the other end of the parking lot from where the main police station building was located.
Why did a snake attack a man in a police station?
A snake will often enter the premises of a home, office or other building looking for prey. It may be attracted by movement or heat.
In this case, there is no telling why the snake entered the police station, or why it attacked the man. Especially as, in many cases, if a snake comes across something alive that is obviously much bigger than it, it will often beat a hasty retreat.
What happened here, however, is likely due to the man making a sudden movement. The snake instinctively reacted, as it thought it was about to be attacked, and all that frantic stomping was the result.
What did the man do correctly?
Watching the video, it was interesting to me to see exactly how well the Thai man handled the snake attack.
He stomped on the snake furiously as it slithered around, thus preventing it from getting much of a hold on his legs.
He also kept his arms above his waist, so that the snake would not bite his hand or arm as it was flailing around.
Khun Apichat then kept stomping until he could stomp on the snake close to its head, thus allowing him to incapacitate the dangerous part — the mouth.
As the snake began to coil itself around his leg, the man then bent down and grabbed the back end of the snake. Knowing that is was unable to bite him.
Once he had the snake’s tail firmly grasped in one hand, he reached the other hand down, gingerly moved his feet to allow himself access to the back of the snake’s head and grabbed it.
It was then easy to stand up with the snake firmly in his grasp, and take further steps to deal with it.
In other words, just about the perfect way to avoid being bitten by a snake in Thailand. If the snake suddenly lunges at you, that is.
More reading: These 12 deadly venomous snakes were caught in a Surat Thani home — watch the video
What to do if you are bitten by a snake in Thailand — yes, it could happen