As cryptozoologists, we at the Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are frequently contacted by researchers from TV companies wanting to make monster-related programmes. While many of these projects come to nothing, a call from Bang Productions, who were working on a Discovery Channel series called Mysteries of Asia, led to my boarding a flight to Thailand in October 2000 to go in search of the legendary monster of the Mekong river, the naga.

The naga is essentially a gigantic snake, usually found in Hindu and Buddhist mythology rather than in present-day Thailand. It is supposed to bear an erectile crest on its head – rather like that of a cockatoo, but made of scales – which it holds menacingly aloft when angry, just as a cobra opens its hood.

According to Buddhist scriptures, the naga is dangerous and can kill by biting and injecting its venom; by spitting venom (again, like certain species of cobra) and thus paralysing its victim; by constriction with its powerful coils; and by the power of its baleful glare, much like the basilisk of mediæval Europe and the Middle East.

Legend says the nagas possess immense intelligence and magical power.