Slithery, wriggly and scary: Burmese python encountered on Sai Kung waterfront near hotel

_{Sai Kung Waterfront Promenade in front of WM Hotel}

Out for walkies on the Sai Kung waterfront I meet a Burmese python. You don’t believe it!

It’s true.

The creature was slithering across the path from the WM Hotel to the sea wall. It was about four feet long, a baby (the scary snakes can grow to 20ft) and it was unmistakably a Burmese python, because of the patterns on its skin, quite beautiful if you’re that way inclined.

The python wriggled through a hole in the sea wall. There was a bloke sitting on the rocks playing mobile phone where it was going, but I said nothing, thinking a baby snake can not hurt him. Also, if I yelled “SNAKE!” and mimicked a wriggly with my hands, I might scare him so much he’d jump up, fall over and hurt himself on the rocks.

I guess the snake had been eating mice and rats hanging around the hotel. Why was it heading for the sea? Perhaps it was going for a swim. Burmese pythons are good swimmers. University students attached a transmitter to a python and watched it travel 42km in one day, including a lot of swimming in the sea.

_{Burmese python can grow up to 3m Photo: Everglades CISMA}

There’s plenty of amusement doing walkies on the waterfront. Today was very windy. A Hakka lady has one of those big distinctive hats on. It’s catching the wind. She’s in danger of falling over. I suggest she takes the hat off, but she doesn’t understand me. Repeatedly you see Hong Kong women exercising by the sea covered from head to foot, muffled, eyes looking through slits, so the sun can’t get at their white skin.

And you can admire the swimmers. They go so far out, you think they’re brave until you realise the water is shallow for a long way. Often you will see Sing, many times voted Sai Kung’s most popular restaurateur, swimming with his dog. Another swimmer you may see is Datta, owner of one of the restaurants that consistently serve the best quality food in Sai Kung, Big Fish.

_{The water along Sai Kung Waterfront Promenade is very shallow Photo: Google}

The view is splendid, too. Sparkling waters, leafy islands, million-dollar yachts and windsurfers racing, racing, racing.