One of the must see things I wanted to photograph while in India was a snake charmer! Everyone has seen photos to videos of it and no matter what, your first reaction is being scared that you’ll get bitten by a cobra and die. Well here is the truth, even Indians aren’t that dumb and to make sure tourists with money don’t die before they get paid, all the snakes have their fangs removed. So the camel walking down the street is actually more dangerous then the cobra in the basket.
So I got my first glimpses of one just as I exited a rickshaw to enter my hotel. We just got into town from the Train Adventure we were on and as I got out this guy threw this basket in front of my face and lifted the lid of it saying something in Hindi I couldn’t understand. When I looked down I seen the cobra staring right at me about a foot away… yeah I jumped back a few steps like a scared little kid. Then it hit me, PHOTO! I got so excited that I snapped a few shots but quickly then realized that I was going to have to pay this guy something. So I went to hand him 50 Rupees (about $1 USD) and he said “No more sir!” So it was on and in the end I think I have him 20 Rupees more and then walked off finally. At one point I thought he was going to try and throw the snake onto my friend and I so we’d drop our money or something but like everything in India you just have to give a reasonable amount and then just walk off, otherwise they will hound you for more and more.
If you want to see more photos of Amritsar and what I seen there, check out The Golden Temple or The Border Ceremony
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