snake ate a kate heart.

day one in vietnam and we were feeling a little crazy. maybe it was the adrenalin from finally getting to our destination. on the way from the airport to the city, we were talking to some people about a place just outside of hanoi called le mat. its a place known for snake resturants. that's right folks - and not just your normal snakes but COBRAS. apparently they are a delicacy there and a our new friend lin said he would take us for dinner that night, knowing we would be the ones paying we were glad to have a local come with us. after about a ten minute drive we pulled up to some place that sure enough looked like your local snake restaurant. they ushered us in and all i could see were snakes - big jars of supposedly snake infused rice wine - with dead snakes in them and then about 4 huge cages full of live cobras. this poor guy opened a cage and pulled out a huge snake - he only had this cane with a hook on it to guide the snake and protect himself from dying. what an awful job. the guy pulls out another snake that was a bit smaller and without any dialect from us just lin and the other workers - they stretch the snake out so that they can slit its chest and pull out the beating heart. they put the heart, which was about the size of a mandarin orange slice in a little dish. i couldn't help but pull out my camera and take pictures. i mean, is this even happening? they pour out 3 shots of blood and 3 shoots of some clear bile looking liquid that came from maybe the stomach area of the snake?? they happily usher us up stairs, carrying the heart and shots, to a nice little romantic sitting area. what? the heart was still beating and it was settled that i would be the "guest of honor" since my birthday was in a couple days. awesome. i naturally put the heart in my shot of blood and shot it back. swallowed it whole. and then the bile. for the next hour the cooks brought out "cobra wine" and 10 different little dishes of cobra - the skin, the gizzards, the meat. which was very nice of them - but i kinda just wanted a bite :) welcome to vietnam. day one.