I did not do much on Thursday. I got up took a 90 minute walk, did some
work, went to lunch with Zach then we met Nancy and went to the airport to
Chiang Mai. We landed and got to our
Guesthouse around 9pm. It was called
Awana house and was near the city wall.
It was about $15 a night and was clean, had hot water, and free
wifi. My room was small, quiet, and had
a tiny balcony. It also had AC that didn’t work to well but did have an awesome
fan so I was comfy. Seriously. Can’t ask
for more than that!!
We got up Friday and had breakfast at the hotel then went to
Tiger Kingdom. I know some people have
issues with animals on display and how they are treated etc. I would never
intentionally hurt or exploit an animal, but I am not a huge animal rights
activist either. I rode elephants in
India and they were mean to the elephants – whipping them and yelling at
them. I wouldn’t go back to that place. But this place seemed ok. Of course I don’t know what happens when
tourists aren’t around. The staff knew
all the tigers names and approximate ages.
I didn’t see them be cruel to the animals or anything. They played with them etc. You can pay to go to one tiger cage and pick
the size you want – the smaller the tiger, the more expensive it is. Or you can get a package and two 2 or 3
cages. Nancy and Zach did smallest,
medium, and large. I did small (about
5-7 months) and large (about 2 years). I
also paid for a photographer to take pictures and got a CD with about 50 pics
from each cage. The cages were big and
there were multiple tigers in each cage.
In the big cage the had me sit with a tiger playing in the shade, I
petted the only female tiger who was playing in the water, and I got to play
with 2 other big tigers. About 6 other
people were in the cage at the same time.
The smaller tigers were a little trickier, they were more impatient and
didn’t want to sit while we laid on them etc.
They said not to touch their heads but if I touched past halfway up
their back, they would jump and look at me and sometimes growl a little! They weren’t going to hurt me but they only
wanted me at the back! They didn’t care
about their tail – you could do whatever you wanted with it. Some people got great pictures where they
were laying all the way along the tiger’s body.
I am at the tail end every picture because they would get all weird if I
went higher. Maybe they could tell I was
a little uncomfortable laying on an animal that could kill me!! Zach was loving it. When I told him my chances of getting married
would be even less if I was missing an arm – he disagreed and said having my
arm ripped off by a tiger would make me cool J Zach and Nancy went in the cage with the
babies and they were so cute!! You could
touch their heads and paws and get great pictures! If I ever go back I will just play with the
babies!
Afterwards we got back in our red truck (kind of like one of
the military ones in MASH – they had benches on the side) and the guy took us
to Doi Suthep – one of the most famous temples here. We hiked up the stairs and walked
around. Zach and I went in the actual
temple – Nancy couldn’t because she had shorts on. We had to take our shoes off and even though
we were “in” the temple, it was still outside and the cement and tile were
HOT. Zach and I were trying to walk fast
enough to keep our feet from burning, but not be disrespectful by running. J
We got fresh passion fruit juice and a cup of
strawberries. I seriously love the fruit
and juices here! And I love eating
street food without the fear of getting sick.
We had our driver take us to a handicraft market where they
make the fancy umbrellas. It was near bo
sang – which is where we wanted to go, but ended up somewhere else. Nancy was looking at stuff for their wedding
this summer. I can’t go because I will
be in Ireland L
Friday night we went to a restaurant called 3 Little Pigs –
it is owned by a man from Alabama and it served all kinds of southern
food! Chicken and waffles, Jambalya,
biscuits and gravy, fried green tomatoes, hush puppies, etc, Oh my gosh – Nancy isn’t familiar with
southern food, but Zach and I dived it!!
I had to fly back to Bangkok Saturday night so I just walked
around Chiang Mai in the morning while Nancy and Zach went to a nearby town to
look for furniture.
I saw the temple Wat Chiang Mun – the oldest temple.
I flew into Bangkok and had to get my luggage and check in
as an international passenger. Vacations
are nice, but anxiety starts on the way back to Mumbai. There are always lots of Indians on the plane
and that involves pushing, shoving, rudeness etc. There were 23 people in line and 19 big
TVs. Apparently you are allowed to buy
two TVs and bring them back so it looked like a group of people flew to Bangkok
to buy two tvs each and fly back to Mumbai.
A western woman started freaking out when an Indian crawled under about
three rows of lines and stood in front of her!!
There is just no way to describe the pushing and shoving on an airplane –
you wouldn’t understand unless you saw it yourself. It is beyond comprehension!!
I barely scratched the surface of Bangkok and Thailand. Will definitely come back. I love that it is very clean and quiet. It is fairly cheap to get around. There is lots of stuff to see and EAT J I wasn’t too keen on
the motorcycle taxis but mostly because I was the third person on there and it
was a little uncomfortable keeping my feet up because there was nowhere to put
them unless I put them on Nancy’s feet.
But I still felt safer being the third person on the back of a
motorcycle with no helmet driving in Bangkok than I do sitting in a rickshaw in
Mumbai. By far!!
It was a fun, relaxing spring break and I so enjoyed seeing
Nancy and Zach J
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