CATCHING BIAWAK WITH BARE HAND

I was reading through the newspaper this morning when I saw a picture of concrete crocodile in Sipitang and it reminded me of a case where a friend catch a Komodo (Biawak) in a stream.



My friend is a very adventurous person and he likes the entire extreme thing. In contrast, I am the good boy and never liked all those adventurous and extremely dangerous outing. It was during a time when we were heading home from town when we saw a Komodo run from the road and disappeared under some debris in the stream.

Friend : Kau pegang barang-barang saya ini, kau tunggu saya tangkap biawak itu.
Saya tahu kalau biawak masuk dalam air ia tidak akan lari jauh dalam air.

Me : Kau berani kah mau tangkap itu biawak, nanti dia gigit kau.

Friend : Kalau dalam air mana ia boleh gigit nanti lemas dia bila buka mulut.

My friend removed his shoes and slowly walks inside the knee-deep stream and let his hands wander amongst the debris where the Komodo disappeared. I saw his left hand stopped moving as if gripping something, his right hand slowly moved further as if aiming for something and in a split second he lifted the Komodo up. I could see the Komodo was thrashing and moving his body to escape from the grip of my friend. My friend was holding the Komodo by its neck and spine which unable it to bite.

It was not really a big reptile but seeing my friend holding and walking out from the stream towards me made me nervous. When he reached the road he rose up the reptile and dropped it hard on the road. Only one dropped to the hard surfaced of the road disable the reptile.

It was the courageous effort by my friend that made me respect him about what he had done and I heard he had lifted a crocodile also from a stream. I couldn’t remember what we did to the Komodo but most probably ended in a cooking pot.

Not everyone dare to catch a reptile, as what my friend did and it would not be encouraged to try that courageous effort. By the way my friend is called Jackson.