Korean Job Discussion Forums

W.T.Carl · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Thanks for the info. So those are Tiger Snakes. There were quite a few of them on the Navy Base in Chinhae. Those, some of the rat snakes and the magpie vipers were the ones I remember. There were also many tree frogs, large green frogs and fire belly toads. I use to keep the rat snakes and tiger snakes as pets. As a matter of fact, I was going to smuggle some of them back to the US, but thought better of it.

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

W.T.Carl · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

Yes, I did. These would include the tiger snake that was wrapped around my little sisters neck and the magpie viper I caught in the back yard. Now all I have to do is dig them out of the P's attic.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

What was either a Dione Ratsnake or a Mamushi on a dirt road soaking up the heat. The triangular head. It moved off into the brush, just out of the way, like, watching.

W.T.Carl · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

If it was short and stocky, it was the Mamushi ot Madpie Viper. The Rat snake would be sleek and thin ish.

captain kirk · Joined: 29 Jan 2003

An adult class, three guys, and I asked about snakes.

One, about thirty years old, remembered as a child coming across a snake trap on a mountain. It was a net arrangement about thirty meters around in which were trapped fifty snakes. They could get in but not out again.

Another, older man (about forty) remembered how, as a boy of ten, he caught snakes for pocket money; 100 won per snake. This was thirty years ago. Back then it was legal and some men made a living catching snakes, and boys their pocket money supplying the men.

His mother didn't know about his snake catching activities, of course, he says. A bunch of boys together would beat the brush and stomp and herd the snakes, get them running. He had a stick with a light wire noose at the end which, by pulling on a wire, could be drawn tight. Without that, sometimes, he'd just step on the head of the snake, pinning it. They were thrown, alive, into a sack and taken to the buyer. No snake ever tried to bite him through the sack; they were all blind in there in the darkness, and docile(?).

When asked about poisonous snakes he said they are 'luxury color'. Bright red belly and a brown back with spots. No snake, in his catching, ever bit him. But he knew a boy who was bitten, his hand became very swollen, and he spent some time in the hospital, but came out ok. I asked about snakes with diamond shaped heads and he said they were poisonous, after describing a steel grey one.

He said snake wine is made by putting a snake in a large bottle and filling it with soju. I asked if he noticed a 'stamina' effect and he couldn't say. He did drink snake wine but at the time he wasn't married (so couldn't check his 'stamina').

rapier · Joined: 16 Feb 2003

Bulsajo · Joined: 16 Jan 2003

braunshade · Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Location: Somewhere better!

Where can I get a couple of snakes? I think it would make for a thoughtful gift for the director of my hogwon.

shevek · Joined: 29 Jul 2003

The Bobster · Joined: 15 Jan 2003