The Snake Safari in Hong Kong

Bamboo vipers and many-banded kraits: Experiencing Hong Kong’s snake safari

At the age of 16, I went on a snake safari in Hong Kong, an experience that has stayed with me ever since. I was alone for two weeks on a small island in the center of the city, in search of all the animals that inhabited it. I took along only the clothes on my back, a pair of sturdy hiking boots and a camera, which was a very useful companion on the path, as I did not have a flashlight with me.

I was only on the island a couple of hours, and spent most of my time walking around and snapping photos of every snake that I came across. I also went to live in a cave, just as an experiment to see how I liked working in a low-walled room. I lived in the cave for two weeks, but I still managed to collect all the photos from my snake safari.

Snake safari

After my two weeks in the cave, I walked on to the main island, which was much bigger than the one I was on. It was a little bigger than a football pitch and was filled with buildings, and there was plenty of wildlife – both big and small.

I did not see any giant boa constrictors on my first walk, but that was mostly due to my camera being so heavy that it didn’t take up much of my limited time on the island. I did, however, see some beautiful snakes, including a large Chinese viper, one-headed water vipers, and one on each side of each arm, which looked like a pair of pincers.

Hong Kong’s snake safari

I also saw a lot of other snakes, including two three-banded kraits, a Burmese python and a lot of different kinds of pit vipers. I could also tell that the Burmese python was

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