Article: Slithery snakes and springy noodles

Saturday September 5, 2009

By PHILIP HII

SIBU: Lai Lee Siew is a household name here. People remember him for three reasons — being the famous "Snake King" in town, his crime-busting activity and his tasty noodles.

He caught his first snake almost a quarter of a century ago when he was 16, and has lost count of how many of these reptiles he has captured with his bare hands.

A BIG CATCH: Lai with a 15-feet python

"On an average, I catch about seven to eight snakes a month, so it must be about 2,000 by now," said Lai while flipping through some old photo albums to show me his biggest and prized catches.

Ah Siew, as he is more popularly known, grew up in the Tong Sang Road area.

"Our home was very close to town but as a boy, I always played near the Lembangan River which is now the site of Sibu Central Market," he recalled.

"A nine-foot python crept into our backyard one day and until today I still wonder how I had the courage and strength to kill it," he recalled.

He confessed: "Those days I was actually a bit scared of snakes." But unwittingly, that was the beginning of his quest for the title of "Snake King" of Sibu.

NO FEAR: Lai and his friends posing with pythons during a shoot for an MTV programme.

Initially, he killed and ate the snakes he caught.

"In the old days, many Chinese and Iban liked to eat snakes because they believed the animal had medicinal values especially in warming the heart, improving blood circulation and increasing virility," Ah Siew explained.

At the urging of his parents, he stopped eating the snakes and stopped killing them altogether because according to Chinese folklore, snakes were associated with evil and sometimes they could be the reincarnation of ancestors or dead relatives.

"Later, I learnt that a lot of the snakes are listed as protected animals in Malaysia," he added.

SCARY REPTILE: One of the cobras caught by Lai

Ah Siew said he read books and watched documentaries to learn about snake-catching. He also credited retired snake catcher Lim Tien Soon, known as the "Snake King" of Sibu in the 1980s, for inspiring him.

Among Ah Siew's adventures were catching a record 70 snakes over two months and rounding up eight snakes from one house consisting of an adult female python and several small pythons.

He hastened to add that fortunately, most snakes living among the population are not poisonous. Speaking from experience, he said that snakes were often found in flood-prone residential areas during the rainy season.

Among some of his prized catches were two pairs of king cobra about 15-feet long while pythons as long as 20-feet were quite common-sight for him. Over the years, he had also acquired the skills of trapping monkeys and other wild animals that ventured into farms and destroyed crops or killed poultry.

The animals that he captured are being kept in cages and baskets until he could release them into the jungles. He hopes the authorities would establish a mini zoo in Sibu where he can send all these animals.

He said many of his friends at Sibu Central Market were contributing leftover fruits to feed the wild animals presently kept on his front porch.

This father-of-three's snake-catching reputation has spread even to the peninsula. He had received telephone calls from people in Kuala Lumpur seeking his advice on ways to get rid of snakes from their homes and warehouses. He had even trained a few local artistes to handle snakes as part of their concert performances. Ah Siew is not just busy catching snakes, which he does for free; he also helps to catch criminals.

Since joining the People's Volunteer Corp (Rela) 10 years ago, he has regularly received certificates of appreciation from the organisation and the police. Most nights, he would be out patrolling crime-prone areas with fellow Rela members.

At other times, he can be found helping his wife at their noodle stall on the first floor of Sibu Central Market.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Metro: South & East 5 September 2009