Snake Farm, Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute

The Snake Farm at Queen Saovabha Memorial Institute is the public face of a working antivenom laboratory the Thai Red Cross has run since 1923 — reportedly the second-oldest snake farm in the world after Brazil’s Instituto Butantan, and the first in Asia. It sits on Rama 4 Road in Bangkok’s Pathum Wan district, walkable from BTS Sala Daeng or MRT Silom, and shares its compound with the Museum of Thai Red Cross Society next door.

The institute traces back to Dr. Leopold Robert, a Swiss physician then directing Bangkok’s Pasteur Institute, who set the antivenom programme in motion. Queen Sawang Vadhana, president of the Thai Red Cross Society at the time, formally opened the snake farm on 22 November 1923; the permanent institute building was funded by a donation from King Vajiravudh in memory of his mother, Queen Saovabha, whose name it carries. More than a century on, it’s still producing antivenom distributed to hospitals across Thailand and the wider region.

Weekdays bring two demonstrations: a venom extraction show around 11:00, where handlers milk cobras, kraits, and vipers for the antivenom production line, and a snake handling show in the early afternoon. Weekends and public holidays keep only the handling show, around 11:00, and the facility closes earlier — 13:00 instead of the weekday 15:30. Between shows, glass enclosures hold more than 30 species of Thai snake, from a coiled Burmese python to an alert king cobra, alongside displays explaining snake anatomy, bite treatment, and the institute’s research.

Insider Tip: Time your visit around the weekday 11:00 venom extraction show specifically — it’s the one demonstration you can’t see on a weekend visit, and it’s the clearest window into what the institute actually does day to day.

The framing throughout is medical and educational rather than showy — staff explain venom potency, treatment protocols, and the scale of snakebite injury across the region, and the presentations tend to shift visitors from wariness to genuine interest in how the antivenom pipeline works. It draws a mix of families, biology students, and travellers looking for something with substance behind the spectacle.

Watch out: The venom extraction show runs weekdays only — turning up on a Saturday expecting to see it is the most common disappointment reported by visitors.

Combine the visit with the Museum of Thai Red Cross Society, which shares the same Rama 4 Road address, or walk over to Lumpini Park for a break afterward — it’s about a kilometre away.