finally some possitive press

[varanus69]

not sure if i believe this but it sounds good. copied from another site.
THE PROVENCE (Vancouver, British Columbia) 31 December 04 Big snake saves three
An Indonesian woman and her twin girls survived the tsunami by clinging to a large snake that pulled them back to land, reports The Jakarta Post.
The mother and twin nine-year-olds found themselves offshore from Banda Aceh when a snake as long as a telephone pole approached. She and the nine-year-olds rested on the reptile, which was drifting along with the current.

think a retic (probably judging by location and rough size) would tolorate 3 people clinging on to it .uhm i doubt it.

[Vengeance]

I think this is an exaguration<sp?> of another story that was posted, I can't find the link though. Very similar, Tsunami victims saw the snake swiming in the water and decided to follow it and it led them to try land. That sounds more realistic to me then the kids riding on the snake as it swam through the water.

[Ryan Pye]

Actually, I heard that the story was true, that the lady and kid did actually hold on to the snake. Im not sure myself if its true, the only way I could see the snake tolerating it, is if it was so occupied with swimming back to land that maybe it just didnt care, but who knows. Still nice even if exaggerated to have some good herp press though!

Ryan

[sleddergirl]

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - An Indonesian woman in the tsunami-ravaged province of Aceh recounted how she swam to safety with her neighbour's young twins on her back by using a giant snake to guide her through the flood waters.

Riza, a 26-year-old clothes seller from the village of Penayang near the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, said that at first she watched helplessly as the tsunami destroyed her home on Sunday.

"I witnessed with my own eyes how the sea water, along with mud, rocks and logs, came rolling in," she said yesterday from a refugee camp at Banda Aceh airport.

The woman said that as she was carried out of her house, she was dragged toward her badly injured neighbour, who was struggling to hold on to her nine-year-old twins.

"Please save my twins, just let me go, as long as they're safe," a tearful Riza recalled the mother saying.

Riza said she grabbed the children and placed them on her back. As she struggled through the torrent, she saw a snake as big as a telephone pole gliding left with the current of the water and toward what turned out to be a makeshift bank.

"Strangely I felt no fear," she said as she followed the snake to safety.

"Thank God, with the power I had left, I managed to go to higher ground and the water was only a metre high."

Riza said the twins, too, were safe. There was no word on the fate of their mother.


This was in the National Post............