Chiang Mai - Day 2 - Tiger Kingdom

As you may already know, Emily is a fan of cats.  Small cats, large cats, wild cats...she loves 'em all.
There is a place in Chiang Mai called Tiger Kingdom where for a fee you can get up close and personal with Big, Small and Smallest Cats...So we did!

In the smallest enclosure, we tried to get close to some 3-4 month olds, but they really wanted to play and wrestle with each other.  We crawled under a table to commune with a little guy and while I was flat out on my belly, the two who were playing started playing with my feet! 










They have tigers from newborn to approximately 3 years old at this place.  Once the tigers turn 3, they are much too big and possibly aggressive to be in cages with people, so they are sent to the zoos to be cared for.  The tigers are well-nourished and obviously loved by the staff who also have great respect for their personalities and their wildness. 

Oh yes, these are not tamed animals, nor are they drugged.  They are wild tigers who are accustomed to people, but given all the right circumstances, these beasts are more than capable of attacking.

 
 
 
 
 
 


Having said that, they were so cute!  They did not smell.  They were very solid and the big ones were very big.  We got to watch as one lovely lady played with her favourite log and another girl got playful with a cat toy. 

Emily was in heaven.  It was a lovely visit.

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We would highly recommend a visit here.

Chiang Mai - Flight of the Gibbons

Emily and I decided to go to Chiang Mai for the weekend.  It is 700km or 1hour flight north from Bangkok.  We searched the web for cool things to do and reasonably priced places to stay.  We found the Rainforest Boutique Hotel:

Very pretty.  Very popular. Very good food at the Restaurant and excellent breakfast buffet (included in price). Nice amenities and close to the old city.  Beds were not much better than blanket-covered-planks and I really hurt my leg getting in to the pool because the pool steps were so incredibly high (or low depending which way you are standing).  I would give it a 3/5.  Probably wouldn't go again but would recommend it to budget minded travellers who like a firm mattress.

Saturday we joined the 'Flight of the Gibbon' tour group and flew through the trees.  Zip-line baby, that's what I'm talking about.  With a couple of abseils thrown in!

First zip was 300m...really cool.  Longest zip was 800m...that's almost a Kilometer people!  That was amazing and so fast. 

There were a few 'honeymoon' zips where you got to go with your partner (each person on their own line) and a few zips where Emily had to double up with another teenager because they are both so slight;  they would have gotten stuck in the middle of the line if they had gone solo! 











We traversed through the jungle on plank bridges high up in the trees. 

The first abseil was 15m down and the second was 45m down the trunk of an old Banyan tree. 
















Absolutely marvellous!  I rented a GOPro digital camera and have really fantastic HD videos of our zips.

Observations

As a good friend of mine once said, "Let me have 2 minutes of your life"...
Time for some observations:

Thai people eat with a fork and a spoon...ALWAYS.  They think I'm weird for only using a fork.
There is no road rage at all despite all the 'cutting off' that goes on.
Driving is more of a fluid dance on the road.
Motorcycles use the space between cars to travel.  They do not stay in a lane...EVER.  Motorcyclists are always the first to roar away when the light turns green.  It sounds like a pack of Hells Angles riding through the intersection.
'Girly-boys' are everywhere.  They get their estrogen from eating a specific kind of banana.
Toilet paper is only used to dry off the neither regions after using a hose (looks like a vegetable sprayer with a long hose) to wash the aforementioned area.
Chain of respect: The King, Monks, TEACHERS. 
People are really friendly. 
They don't believe us when we say we are from Bangkok.  Would you??
Young people are very immature and dependent upon their families far longer than Western 'young'uns'.  I think this is a disservice.
Anywhere you go, taxis will quote "400 baht."  If you know better, you can negotiate a more reasonable rate.