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I'm not sure why I have felt the need to have my picture made with every animal I come into contact with over here. I think it has to do with the fact that I am SO out of my normal element, I just find that it doesn't seem that odd.
We were on Sentosa Island over Chinese New Year and we walked by a man that had a basket on a table, the lid on it. He had a sign and it had pictures of people with a snake draped over their shoulders. His sign said 5 Singapore dollars to use your camera and get your picture taken with his snake. Now we had visited Sentosa Island when I was in southeast Asia in June, and I had seen a couple of these guys set up like him. At that time, I thought you would have to be CRAZY to do that! For whatever reason, this time when I saw the table and the basket of snake, I thought this would be hilarious to send back to my kids in the states. I was going for the "shock" value. So I tell Jeff I THINK I want to do it, and he says "right". I tell him I REALLY think I want to do it, and he laughs and says no way would I let them drape a snake on me. Well don't ever challenge me--I am a true sucker for that (obviously Jeff knows what buttons to push).
We were on Sentosa Island over Chinese New Year and we walked by a man that had a basket on a table, the lid on it. He had a sign and it had pictures of people with a snake draped over their shoulders. His sign said 5 Singapore dollars to use your camera and get your picture taken with his snake. Now we had visited Sentosa Island when I was in southeast Asia in June, and I had seen a couple of these guys set up like him. At that time, I thought you would have to be CRAZY to do that! For whatever reason, this time when I saw the table and the basket of snake, I thought this would be hilarious to send back to my kids in the states. I was going for the "shock" value. So I tell Jeff I THINK I want to do it, and he says "right". I tell him I REALLY think I want to do it, and he laughs and says no way would I let them drape a snake on me. Well don't ever challenge me--I am a true sucker for that (obviously Jeff knows what buttons to push).
So I decide to do it and the man at the table has these little shirts and hats on his table that he puts on you so that you can "look" like a snake handler?? I guess. It is precisely at this point that the man takes the lid off the basket of snake and I see this HUGE snake. I'm not sure what size I thought the snake would be, but I did NOT expect it to be so big. He drapes it over my shoulder and starts "arranging" it for the picture. Jeff is about 6 feet away with our camera getting ready to snap pictures. All I am thinking now is "take the picture, take the picture, take the picture". When you see the pictures, I think you can easily read this on my face! The snake guy is letting the snake's head just kind of swing back and forth and I keep asking "how do you KNOW it won't bite me??". He tells me it is 4 years old and weighs over 15 pounds. It really did feel VERY heavy on my shoulders. By the time Jeff has shot four pictures there is quite a crowd of tourists around to look at the crazy American with a snake. The snake man says, "you can take more pictures" and I say "no thank you. I have my money's worth".
So life goes on, and last weekend the resort compound we live on is having a Chinese New Year celebration. (CNY goes on for AWHILE over here!) The invitation says there will be a "mini-petting zoo". We are thinking U.S. petting zoos--goats, Shetland ponies, etc. We get there and they have over a dozen animals in rather large cages, but none that seem to be for "petting". A few creatures they have are an Iguana lizard that is HUGE; a tarantula; several large birds; two big snakes; a rabbit looking thing that was NOT a rabbit; and a monkey. People are just wondering around looking and snapping pictures. Some of the cages have a paper sign on the top that says "Please Do Not Touch"--interesting for a petting zoo. We are looking at the monkey in the cage and one of the handlers walks up and puts that sign on top of his cage. As soon as the man walks off, the monkey reaches up between the slats of his cage, grabs the edge of the sign and pulls it down into his cage to stand on it. Pretty funny, if you think about it!
One of the resort employees talks the handler into taking the monkey out of the cage. She said the monkey likes candy, has been at Leisure Farm before when they have brought the "petting zoo", and is very friendly. Well I'm in at this point! I hand my camera to Jeff and go over to get my picture made with my new best friend. The monkey's little hand felt like a hairy little child's hand. She really liked the candy I gave her, and was much more interested in that than in me. As I've said before, I have a thing about monkeys, so this picture was actually FUN to take--unlike the snake picture.
I'm not sure where I go from here with the whole animal venture. I think I will just keep my eyes open and see what else is out there to hold!
