We visited the Snake Temple as part of a sightseeing trip around Penang. I feel it is more a tourist attraction than a temple now but maybe this was just the feeling we got on a specific day. It was interesting nevertheless. The temple itself is relatively small and has a few tourist shops next to it. The snakes mainly appeared to be asleep twined around some small branches – we were told this was because of the burning of special incense candles. We also saw some snakes curled up in the trees near the car park and they seemed equally soporific.
In a room off the main temple we could have our photos taken with various types of snake wrapped round us. This was reasonably priced and they took some effort to get a good photo of all seven of us together. Rather corny but a fun souvenir.
Next to the temple, which itself was free to enter, was what was referred to as a breeding centre, this had a small entrance fee. It consisted of snakes in rather small cages, a large tortoise and a few monkeys in cages. Although the animals seemed well the standard was nowhere near that of Western zoos and the 10 year old with us did not like it for this reason.
I suggest you visit the temple, possibly have your photo taken, but give the paying part a miss.
