Snakes on a Plane ... Down Under

There's a 95 percent chance Senior Editor Christine Sarkis is thinking about travel right now. Follow her on Instagram @postcartography and Twitter @ChristineSarkis.

Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

The Handy Item I Always Pack: The Trtl Pillow. It's easy to pack and comfortable, and makes it so I can actually sleep on flights.

Ultimate Bucket List Experience: Seeing the Aurora Borealis from the comfort of somewhere warm, like a glass igloo or hot spring.

Travel Motto: Curiosity is an amazing compass.

Aisle, Window, or Middle Seat: Aisle all the way.

Email Christine Sarkis at editor@smartertravel.com.

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It’s Snakes on a Plane meets Crocodile Dundee: A Qantas Airways plane was grounded in Australia after four pythons escaped from their carrier in the hold of the aircraft. Lest your imagination (like mine) go straight to a vision of 12-foot-long behemoths cruising the aisles, I should state that these were baby pythons and were a mere six inches long.

After the escape was discovered in Melbourne, passengers were transferred to another plane. The snake-infested aircraft was then searched, and when the snakes weren’t found, fumigated as well. Still no sign of the snakes yet though.

The BBC has more details on the snake plane escape. Add this one to the list of stowaway or escaped animals found on planes in recent years, along with more snakes, scorpions, and mice, and a cheetah. Given those choices, I’ll take the crying baby or kid behind me kicking my seat any day.

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