That Time I Almost Died in Bali

I started this trip thinking back to my eight-year-old self and that Indonesian Rupiah that came from my cereal and ended it thinking about the time my eight-year-old self ripped my toenail off just before flying home from Grand Cayman (actually, it only came halfway off and it stayed like that until I flew home and got to a Dr. there). On my last day in Bali, I once again ventured down to the beach for one last bit of vacation before I left. Luckily I avoided injury this time around, but it was close. Thirty years later, the stakes were much higher, I was much older, but apparently no wiser.

I was just relaxing on the beach when I decided to snorkel around and see if I could find anything worth photographing. There wasn't much out there at first. A star fish, a bunch of gross looking fish under a rock, some sea grass.

I did eventually see something that caught my eye. At first I thought it was some trash. An old bicycle tire tube or something. Then I thought it was an eel. As I got close I could see scales and thought it was a dead snake that had washed out from the land. When I noticed the banded stripes, I realized it was a sea snake. I don't know a lot about sea snakes, but I do know that within their family, you will find the most venomous of all snakes on earth.

I watched it for a few minutes and it didn't move. It looked dead, all brown and dirty. I couldn't see its head. I wanted to see its head. I wanted to flip it over and inspect it. There were no sticks available. I used the longest piece of dead coral I could find. It was about four inches long. I may as well have just used my hand. I kind of lifted up the tail a little bit and the son-of-a-bitch sprang to life. I jumped back in rescue diver quick reverse style and watched the now awake, frightened and confused, definitely agitated, possibly revenge-seeking, deadly sea snake looking around for the source of its rude awakening. It surfaced to take a breath of air and I fired off a picture as I swam for my life. You can see the snake in the top right corner of the pic.

And that's why you don't poke at "dead" snakes.