by Cecilia Hue, Assistant Producer, Deserts and Grasslands team

 I have a confession to make. I find snakes repulsive. They freak me out. Let’s put it this way …you wouldn’t get me posing like Cindy Crawford with a snake around my naked body.  Not if you paid me a million dollars!

 So when I was asked to direct a sequence about the biggest snake harvest in the world, the thought filled me with dread.  How would I cope with millions of snakes slithering around me? As I walked out of the plane into the sauna that is Cambodia I told myself I would have to be brave and get on with it. 

11-year old Vanei was completely at home among the snakes

You see, unlike the children I was about to film with, I didn’t grow up with snakes which may explain why I am not so relaxed around them.  Vanei, aged 11, was so comfortable with snakes that he liked to wrap them around his neck.  His two little sisters aged 6 and 3 were very happy to play with them too and make wriggly bracelets and necklaces of snakes. It would have been my idea of hell!

 Vanei tried to get me used to them but soon realised it was much more fun trying to scare me.  I was the laughing stock of the group. But I didn’t mind… I think it helped them relax around us.

I made the mistake of telling him I was scared of snakes

 Later on, our little snake boy sat next to a big pile of live snakes to discover that one of the crawling creatures had made its way up his shorts!  It was my turn to laugh…