Nico and Jo’s Excellent Adventure

The images don’t lie. Ko Samui beaches are stunning. Clear, warm water and soft sandy beaches littered with shells I’ve only seen wrapped in plastic wrap at some tacky surf shop back home.

It’s been a week since I’ve written anything. Why? Simple.

The beach.

It’s hard to explain waking up daily with nothing to do but throw a bikini on and sit on the sand. And if you somehow got tired of that, then swimming in crystal clear waters for a while should cure your boredom.

Too athletic? Then how about lying down for about two hours under a coconut tree and getting massaged with tropical oils?

Now that I’ve succeeded in making my friends and family hate me, I’d to also say that there are other thoughts here other than ZZZZZZ.

There is, undeniably, poverty throughout the island. My masseuse makes about 4000 bhat on a slow month – about $100 US dollars. Things we’d normally pay for at three times the price at home cost a mere one or two dollars here.

As with all my observances, one theme runs clear: The scenery is stunning. The poverty is heartbreaking.

Well, we talked about it. Researched it. And now, we’ve actually done it.

Nico and I have eaten an eight course snake dinner. Ryan and Ayumi went with us. We had made friends with a woman who owned the bar/cafe around the corner from our hotel in Hanoi. Her brother offered to take us to a snake restaurant located a little outside Hanoi city proper. We planned a few days ahead and looked forward to trying out this delicacy. (Incidentally, the Vietnamese tout snake as an organic Viagra for men…one meal and BAM! ;)]

We got picked up at our hotel and headed to the ourskirts of the city. Though the guys were hyped up about eating snake, Ayumi and I started feeling a bit…worried. We calmed ourselves down by saying that we would eat the vegetarian options on the restaurant menu.

Only one problem. We arrived (and I AM SO NOT KIDDING) at the restaurant called “O Sin” snake restaurant. It was a small, family run place with a huge poster of a cobra on the front. Come to find out, EVERYTHING on the menu was snake. I started dreaming of an In and Out burger straight away.

The owner of the restaurant led us to the back where a huge cage full of writhing snakes were held. He fearlessly stepped into the cage and started showing us the different snakes he had for the menu. Even with his professional ease with these creatures, I couldn’t help wonder if I would witness a man getting attacked by a family of snakes that night.

We picked out the snakes [two of them…one of them a Cobra!!!] and they were caught and put in a burlap bag. We were let upstairs to the dining area where the owner of the restaurant placed a tray on the spotless tiled floor and proceeded to slit the snakes and drain their blood in a carafe of Vietnamese wine. After mixing up the concoction, he cut out the heart and stomach of the two snakes and put them in shot gladsses.

I didn’t know then why he put them in shot glasses, UNTIL HE POURED THE BLOOD WINE IN THEM. Ayumi and I looked at each other and sloooowly inched towards the restaurant terrace. Oh, and by the way, THE SNAKE HEARTS WERE STILL BEATING.

Nico and Ryan looked at each other and with the smell of testosterone in the room, took the shot the blood wine, with beating heart and stomach, in one gulp. At this point, I wondered if I would 1) ever kiss my snake heart-mouthed boyfriend again and 2) if he was secretly insane and love indeed makes one incredibly blind.

After the downing of the first (oh yes! there were at least 4 more shots of blood wine for Nico and Ryan!) shot of blood wine, the courses started coming. It’s all a blur (you know what they say about one’s mind blocking out traumatic events? Well, it’s true) but I believe the courses included:

– Snake soup
– Snake rib meat with fried bread
– Grilled snake meat [think flat round meatballs]
– FRIED SNAKE SKIN with chili sauce (which I may add wasn’t too bad except that you could see the snake skin design still on them…made me want a pair of really expensive shoes…Jimmy Choo anyone??)
– Snake spring rolls
– Snake sauteed with lemongrass, chili and mushrooms
– Fried rice cooked in snake fat
– Grilled snake meat wrapped in spinach

And now for the question you’re all dying to ask…WHAT DOES IT TASTE LIKE????

Snake meat, by itself (grilled or otherwise) tastes a bit like (for you sushi lovers out there) Anago — eel. For others, think fish teriyaki. A little flaky and really tender. If you mix it with other flavoring, it tastes like chicken but again, the texture is more tender.

All in all, it was an amazing (albeit expensive) meal but at least we can say we did it.

And yeah, like all Asian food….we were all hungry about 3 hours later. 😉

For the brave: Some pictures here —
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaN2bVi2cM2P1

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