Cobra
I remember when i was in China a few years ago. We were staying in Hangzhou. Hangzhou is famous for its Lake - 'West Lake’ to be exact. The lake is huge (about 2 miles across), and has two islands on them. Each island about the size of a football pitch.

One day we were on a day out, we were one of these islands happily admiring the view of the lake. When all of a sudden there was a commotion about 10ft away in the middle of the foot path. A crowd grew, encircling it.

We walked over to see what was going on. We were shocked to find in the middle was a 10ft King Cobra, sitting up., fanning its neck, hissing, and ready for a strike.

The Chinese tourists simply stood back in awe, not worrying to run away. Then out of the bushes another Chinese guy came running over with a bag, picked him up and threw him in, then everyone clapped.

Now, what was strange about this, is the island was at least 400m away from the shore (like i said the lake is massive) - how the hell did it end up on the island?

Chances are that snake made a nice Hot Pot that night.
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Tue 29 Apr 2008, 12:01, 6 replies)

Umm
snakes can swim you know.
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Tue 29 Apr 2008, 13:05, closed)

..we figured that
But the coast was MILES away (well, not miles but you know what i mean)

either way it was big and scary. Seeing a deadly snake when its not behind perspex puts the heebie jeebies up you ....
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Tue 29 Apr 2008, 13:20, closed)

I'm not suprised
If I saw a 10ft king cobra, I'd be shitting it. London zoo used to have a plastic demo snake in a glass box in the reptile house that would lurch forwards and spit venom (water)at you. Great fun for my brother as I hadn't seen it yet, not so much fun for me screaming and running for my life straight into another vivarium, startling the snakes inside who immediately hissed, further scaring the shit out of me.
( fuck shit up the best you never had, Tue 29 Apr 2008, 13:32, closed)

Not far
It's not that far to the island by snake standards, particularly a big one such as that. What surprises me is that the bugger didn't dissolve on the trip. There was some nasty muck in that lake when I was there (and they were so proud when various creatures from the lake appeared on the menu).
( SteamedCleaner, Tue 29 Apr 2008, 13:50, closed)

...
yeah it was greenish in colour when i was there last - apparantly they had cleaned it up, and drain it every year to empty the 'sludge'

i still find it difficult to see the cobra swimming it, the water is always quite choppy.

lets claim it was a miracle.
(Dan dan dan They tik urh jerbs!!!, Tue 29 Apr 2008, 13:56, closed)

King cobras are
awesome swimmers. They can swim across rivers, so swimming 400 metres to an island in a lake should have posed no problems for the bugger. BTW, 10ft is a fairly average size for a King, I've seen a 14-footer (in captivity) and I know people who've seen 17 footers in the wild.
(Bel Shamharoth has eight of everything, Wed 30 Apr 2008, 8:10, closed)