--- title: Video: Huge Meter-Long Lizards Are Crawling Through Bangkok Sewers description: A tourist in Bangkok says he filmed a Komodo dragon wandering in a sewer canonical: https://time.com/3965538/thailand-bangkok-komodo-dragon-monitor-lizard-video/ author: Helen Regan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-21T08:49:28.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:22:20.814Z og:title: Huge Meter-Long Lizards Are Crawling Through Bangkok Sewers og:description: And this guy caught one of the beasties on video. og:url: https://time.com/3965538/thailand-bangkok-komodo-dragon-monitor-lizard-video/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Huge Meter-Long Lizards Are Crawling Through Bangkok Sewers twitter:description: And this guy caught one of the beasties on video. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Huge Meter-Long Lizards Are Crawling Through the Bangkok Sewers and This Guy Caught One on Video by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jul 21, 2015 8:49 AM UTC by [Helen Regan](https://time.com/author/helen-regan/) ## Helen Regan Jul 21, 2015 8:49 AM UTC One tourist got a nightmarish surprise during a recent trip to Bangkok when he filmed what he says was a “huge” Komodo dragon slithering through a storm drain. “I was outside of a temple in downtown Bangkok and people were screaming and pointing into the sewer. There it was. I got the video to prove it!” said John Hernandez, who posted the video to [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0-Pe9mEN5c). According to [UPI](http://www.upi.com/Odd%5FNews/2015/07/20/Purported-komodo-dragon-caught-on-camera-in-Bangkok-sewer/2671437418882/?spt=sec&or=on%5C), Hernandez said the locals told him the big lizards “rove in packs” looking for rats to eat. Although fellow [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3dyphu/a%5Fhuge%5Fkomodo%5Fdragon%5Fin%5Fthe%5Fsewers%5Fof%5Fbangkok/) users were quick to point out that that the beast was unlikely to be a Komodo dragon, as these dangerous creatures only live on certain islands of Indonesia, can reach 3 m in [length](http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/reptiles/komodo-dragon/), and have been known to eat deer, pigs, water buffalo and even the [occasional](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/mar/24/man-mauled-death-komodo-dragon) human. It’s much more likely to be a water [monitor](https://bangkokherps.wordpress.com/2011/09/20/water-monitor/) lizard, they said, which are commonly found throughout Asia. Still, that is one big nope! ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3965538/thailand-bangkok-komodo-dragon-monitor-lizard-video/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3965538/thailand-bangkok-komodo-dragon-monitor-lizard-video/"},"headline":"Huge Meter-Long Lizards Are Crawling Through the Bangkok Sewers and This Guy Caught One on Video","datePublished":"2015-07-21T08:49:28.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:22:20.814Z","description":"Dragon or not, we're keeping our distance!","url":"https://time.com/3965538/thailand-bangkok-komodo-dragon-monitor-lizard-video/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","Thailand","Bangkok","YouTube","video"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Helen Regan","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/helen-regan/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3965538/thailand-bangkok-komodo-dragon-monitor-lizard-video/","name":"Huge Meter-Long Lizards Are Crawling Through the Bangkok Sewers and This Guy Caught One on Video"}}]}] ```