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Published: February 2nd 2020
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Banded Black and White Sea Krait.
I must confess this is not our photo as we don't have an underwater camera but this is exactly like the one we saw After a pleasant dinner in " Somewhere Else " restaurant we sauntered over to Aleena Mini Mart for our usual after dinner drink. As always the long wooden tables were crammed with people from all nations eating street food and enjoying a cold beer or two from the mini mart. We stood scanning the scene deciding which table to join when a girl came rushing over to us asking if we remembered them. They'd met us there two years ago and had been wondering if we would be here again this year.
After a few moments I got my brain into gear and , yes, I did remember them.
We joined them at their table and the memories came flooding back. They remember Sharon and Scott and of course ' the sweet little blonde haired children' Jake and Kyla. We remembered they were from Finland and had been staying at ' Somewhere Else' we had chatted with them on several occasions the last time we were here.
We chatted for a while then, I'm not sure how, but the talk got around to snakes. We all had stories to tell of snake encounters here in S.E Asia.
Snakes in caves,
snakes dropping from trees in front of us, snakes slithering along the ceiling of restaurants not to mention ones appearing out of air conditioning units! Then I remembered the black and white banded sea krait we had seen in the waters here off Long Beach last time.
Next morning we went along to our usual spot at the far end of the beach. For the last few days the sea had been quite choppy and the visibility practically nil so we hadn't bothered to snorkel. Added to this were the numerous jelly fish that had been washed up on the waters edge.
Today, however, the water seemed much clearer so we ventured in with our masks and snorkels.
Miraculously the gloom had cleared and we could see the rocks below us easily and no sign of any jelly fish.
As we swam further out Stan began having problems with his mask filling up with water so I swam over to help. I looked down at the rocks below for somewhere to safely put my feet while I helped him.
Shock! Right there below me and just a metre from Stan's feet was a black and white banded sea
Antee and Pia, our friends from Finland.
Sorry Antee if I spelt your name wrong. kraite snaking around the rocks. Instead of helping Stan fix his mask I yelled "snake!" and pulled my feet up to the surface of the water. The snake remained there weaving in and out of the rocks. Stan had managed to get his mask back on and looked down. We stayed there calmly watching it for a while as it went about it's business then suddenly it swam up in my direction. I swam hard out of its way but Stan remained watching. He motioned me to come back, tentatively I returned as the snake reached the surface, took a breath then continued to swim on the surface. That did kind of freak me out. Not so bad when you can see it below you but on the surface it's so much more difficult to keep an eye on it.
Finally it went back down , we lingered a while watching it then Stan suggested we go back ashore. I readily agreed!
Apparently Sea kraits are very venemous, enough venom, in fact, to kill ten humans, but they're not usually a threat to humans as their mouths are very small and it would be hard for them to actually bite you. All the same, it was a thrill to see it but I was happy to be back out on dry land.
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