It's the Eye of the Tiger...

4th November 2012

If you've managed to stick with my new found love of Blogging and my daily updates (yes, I'm talking about you mum) then you can probably see that I'm enjoying my time in Thailand. We've been really lucky and the past few days have been full of exciting activities and adventures and today was no different. Despite the train stopping, starting and bumping along the track I managed to get a decent nights sleep and woke up just outside Chiang Mai. We went straight to the hostel, checked in and then Rory and I decided to go to Tiger Kingdom. We'd heard that Tiger Kingdom is the place to go if you want to see Tigers in Thailand – they don't drug the cats or use any restraints or chains. I'm not one for animal cruelty but from what I could see the Tigers were well cared for and the facilities were much better than most Zoos. Obviously it would be much better if they were chillin' in the wild but Tiger Kingdom is meant to be very responsible, contributing to Asian breeding programmes and using proceeds to fund the protection of Tigers, so don't judge me!

Anyway, we obviously had no idea how to get there and after talking to a few Tuk Tuk/taxi drivers we hopped in the back of a beat up suburban and were on our way. There was nothing even vaguely official about this particular car but he said he would not only take us to Tiger Kingdom but also wait and bring us back for 200Bhat, which at around £4 was a complete bargain. We were convinced he was going to drop us in the middle of nowhere and speed off but he was true to his word and after waiting and driving us around for the best part of three hours we left him with a nice tip. But that's enough of the boring stuff... now on to the best part – Tigers BUT not only that, BABY TIGERS!

Rory's favourite animal is the Tiger and while I've always liked it, I'm all about the dogs, Kelso in particular. However, I am extremely fond of baby animals and so decided to fork out the extra money to cuddle the youngest Tigers in the place. These little boys and girls were 6-8 weeks old and I am completely in love with them. Their fur is a bit wirey but they have the softest tummies and the pads on their paws are incredibly smooth. When they were sleeping on their backs they kept crossing their hind legs which, not to be soppy, was soooo cute and when they were roughhousing together you could hear a very faint and low growl which was far to cute to be scary.

I also splashed out on a CD of pictures which only cost 200Bhat and was well worth it – because you're paying that little bit more you get so much longer with the Tigers and the workers were really helpful, they even took pictures on my own camera. It was also pretty embarrassing getting pictures done, especially when a Thai man is telling you to lie like a Tiger. Yes, I did lie on my back in full lounge position and no, these pictures will never see the light of day!

When I finally said goodbye to my little friends we went in with the big Tigers and they really were big. These were fully grown adult Tigers and while they were a little unpredictable, I didn't feel unsafe. Unfortunately Rory was in charge of taking pictures of me getting up close and personal with these Tigers but he didn't get my good side, so I'll have to make do with some joint pictures which are actually pretty good – once again a big thank you to the workers!

After our fun filled morning at Tiger Kingdom we were feeling at one with nature and decided to go to a Crocodile/Alligator park. Turns out 300Bhat each for a five minute show is a complete rip off and after some polite but firm negotiation, I got 50% of our money back! Hurray for pushy westerners! 

Rory was famished after this so we stopped off in McDonalds for a “before dinner snack” which meant a large meal for him and me stealing some of his chips. This probably wasn't the best move because we had to meet our group to go out for dinner an hour later, ending up in some western/Thai restaurant where my safe choice of nachos tasted great but made me feel pretty rough. Southeast Asia, you're so unpredictable but we're off to a Thai cookery course tomorrow so maybe we'll pick up some handy tips!

P.S in relation to the Blog title, while in Tiger Kingdom there was a sign, which no joke said, “turn off the flash on your camera as it can hurt the Eye of the Tiger.” I meant to take a pictures of it but as you can see, I got distracted by the baby Tigers!