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Chiang Mai, Thailand
Entry 19 of 47 | show all | print this entry |
The flight was to Chiang Mai was completely booked full, so Lisa and I had a young Western girl sitting next to us. She introduced herself as Deloris and it turned out she was Canadian. Not only was she Canadian, but she happened to live just down the street from us in Toronto. Deloris was a massage therapist, recently out of school and traveling before she had a large client list built up. She was spending most of her time in Thailand, taking meditation and massage courses and had lots of advice on what to do in northern Thailand. She wasn't affected at all by the protest problems of Bangkok and was merely in Kuala Lumpur as a Visa run.
By 12:45 we had landed in Chiang Mai and cleared customs, a quick and straight-forward process. The first thing we did was finding an ATM and withdrew 20,000 baht. The machine only gave us 1,000 baht bills, so the next thing we did was find a restaurant where we could break one of those 1,000 baht notes. We were happy to see a couple of Western fast food restaurants, including Dairy Queen. We enjoyed a sundae from there before looking for a way to get to Eagle House I in the downtown part of the city. We had emailed them about getting a free airport pickup, but were not able to get a response before leaving K.L. Luckily there was also free wireless Internet available here, but unfortunately for us Eagle House's driver was not available.
Instead Eagle House recommended taking a prepaid taxi, which was available for 120 baht from a counter at the airport. The first taxi counter we approached was the wrong one though. They wanted a 50 baht fee to call us a metered taxi. That didn't make much sense to us since metered taxis were usually available immediately outside of most airports, but we found the 120 baht prepaid counter soon thereafter and arranged our ride from there. We had to wait about 5 minutes but after that it was a ride straight to our guest house in a comfortable air-conditioned taxi, about 15 minutes away.
After arriving at Eagle House I, we were greeted with a glass of ice-water and then shown to our reserved double A/C room. The grounds of Eagle House were lush with vegetation and very quiet. It is a well organized guest house with pamphlets and services available to cover anything an average traveler needs. Eagle House was known for its eco-tours and their cooking school, The Chili Cooking Academy, which was one of the main reasons we had gone there. They also allowed us to have a package sent from Canada to their place and they had been hanging on this package for us for a number of weeks now. According to our original plan, we should've been in Chiang Mai nearly two weeks earlier, but the Bangkok airport protests had forced us to change our plans.
After settling in to our room the first order of business was to order some Pad Thai, which both Lisa and I had been thinking about for a number of weeks. Eagle House had a large menu available, at fairly reasonable prices, so we tried their Pad Thai first. It was as delicious as we had remembered and the fruit shakes they had were also yummy, although they were a little over priced compared to other places we would find later.
We spent the next few hours roaming the streets around us looking for practical things we would need during our stay in Chiang Mai. Within a few minutes of walking we had passed by a stupa that looked to be very old, but was now just an obstacle to drive around on a small alley. A few minutes after that and we were walking along side the moat that surrounded the old city, which now had a busy downtown street running along the side of it. There was also an old city wall after the moat, but most of that had been taken down now and there were only a few gates and remnants of the wall to remind visitors what it would've looked like hundreds of years ago.
One of the most striking things about Chiang Mai is how there are so many Buddhist temples in the city. They are all in immaculate shape and still in use by the monks and other Thais today. Most of these temples date back over 500 years, so it is really impressive to see them in such good condition. Almost all of them were open and free for visitors to explore as well. We took pictures of a great deal of these temples. Some of my favorite pictures were of Buddhist monks praying in front of giant gold Buddha images inside these ancient temples.
Contrasting the old elements of the city, Chiang Mai has many modern amenities as well. Much like any other city we had visited in Thailand, there were 7/11 convenience stores everywhere. In fact there were probably even more in Chiang Mai than anywhere else, as they were spread out by one or two hundred meter intervals along the main streets of the city. One of my favorite things about these 7/11 stores is that they sell a wide variety of Thai beers at very reasonable prices. Lisa and I got some 640 ml bottles of Chiang Mai for 36 baht each while we were first exploring the area around our guest house. Beer Chang measures in at 6.4%, so one must be careful not drink too many of these bottles in one sitting.
Our first night in the Eagle House I was very chilly. We had never turned on the air-conditioning as even in the middle of the day the shade provided from all the surrounding trees kept our room a nice temperature. Although our room had come with provided towels, our bed did not have a blanket, so we only had our silk sheets to use. By the middle of the night I was waking up from the cold and couldn't help but wonder why we were paying for an air-conditioned room when really we needed a heater if anything. It was 360 baht/night for the air-conditioned room, but the following day we moved to a similar room without air-conditioning for the cost of 240/baht a night.
The weather of Chiang Mai was very agreeable compared to the constant heat and humidity we had experienced in Indonesia and Malaysia. The mornings and nights were quite chilly, but during the day it usually stayed around 30 degrees with 50-60% humidity, which is essentially perfect weather to me. Since I had sent home all of my warm clothing while we were in Indonesia though, I was a little unprepared for mornings and nights here. I hadn't kept a single long-sleeved shirt, but at least I had two full-legged pants and a jacket available.
After our first night of sleeping in a chilled state, I decided to look for some pajamas to help keep me warmer at night. We decided to check out Chaing Mai's night market which was about a 15 minute walk from where we were staying. On our way we shared a few large Beer Changs and by the time we got there, we had actually finished two bottles each. Neither of us had anticipated how large of an event the Chiang Mai night market was. The vendors actually started well before the main drag and stretched on for around a kilometer or more. They were selling a wide variety of wares; including lots of traditional hand weaved silk and cotton clothing, imitation brand-name watches, clothing, jewelry and handbags, as well as food stuffs and other handicrafts.
We wandered up the street of vendors and wandered into an indoor mall that was part of the night market. The vendors in the mall had lots of labeled prices and we were very happy with the pricing level that we saw. I found linen long sleeved tops for 100 baht, although in my drunken state I agreed to pay 120 baht for the XL sized variety without even trying to negotiate. I also found matching pants for 100 baht which helped to keep me warm during the cool Chiang Mai nights. Lisa purchased a silver bracelet from one of the Mao tribe ladies who are numerous at the night market - dressed in traditional clothing and rapping on their wooden frogs which make a sound remarkably close to the real thing.
The next day we spent wandering around Chiang Mai, loosely following the walking tour from the Lonely Planet guide. We made sure that we were appropriately dressed in long pants and sleeved tops to visit the many Wats in the city. We visited the most popular temple in Chiang Mai, Wat Phra Singh, which proved to be impressive in size and beauty. The biggest building on the site was built around 1400 to hold a very large Buddha image inside, the Lion Buddha. We spent about an hour in the compound photographing the remarkable nature of the site. Next we wandered around the town and found a local Thai restaurant for lunch. We were the only foreigners in the place - but they did have an English menu. The food was excellent and very reasonably priced at between 15-30B for entrees. They also had an excellent banana and honey milkshake for 15 baht that we ended up coming back for more than once.
The next few days we spent enjoying the local cuisine, wandering the streets of Chiang Mai looking for pictures and shopping and usually hitting the night market in the evenings. We wanted to sample many of the different Thai dishes available because Lisa had to pick out five dishes that she wanted to learn now to make in the Chili Cooking Academy class that she had signed up for. Lisa booked the class for Friday (Dec 12th, 2008) so we had ample time to figure out that pad thai, spring rolls, papaya salad, stir fry chicken with basil and chili, & chicken fried rice were all excellent meals. I am a little embarrassed to admit that I hadn't tried papaya salad during my first trip to Thailand because it has turned out to be one of my favorite meals here now.
When Friday rolled around Lisa had to get up and walk over to the Eagle House II for her cooking lesson for 9:00 (but of course she was early). I slept in but by 10:00 Lisa had summoned me to join her. It turns out that she was the only person in the class that day and she needed some help eating the meals that she was making. The class had started by the instructor taking Lisa to the local food market to buy the ingredients needed for her dishes of the day. After returning and chopping up most of the vegetables, she got to work on the chicken fried rice. By the time I had joined her, the chicken fried rice was waiting for me and she was working on the pad thai. I concentrated on taking pictures and video tapes of Lisa cooking in between my frequent meals of delicious Thai food that Lisa had made.
Lisa was asked early in the day whether she'd like to select a sixth dish to learn how to prepare or if she'd prefer to learn how to make decorative food. She picked the decorative option, so next on the agenda was how to make a rose out of tomatoe and cucumber. It was very intricate work that took a lot of time, but the end result was a dish that looked like a rose (tomato as the flower and cucumber as leaves). Soon it was lunch time and we both needed the time to let our stomachs settle to make room for the afternoon's dishes. Obviously we didn't need to eat during the lunch break so we spent an hour on the Internet at a nearby caf้. The Internet service was quite fast considering it only cost 20 baht an hour.
After lunch, Lisa got to work on the stir fry chicken with basil and chili dish. The cooking instructor showed me a dish he was making in the main hostel kitchen at this time and offered me some. It was called sticky black rice and he had me mix in some coconut milk before it was served. It tasted similar to rice pudding and it would make an excellent dessert. Before I had even finished my sticky black rice, Lisa had finished her next dish and I was feasting once again. It was becoming obvious that Lisa really did need me to help her eat the food because I don't think a single person would've stood a chance.
It took awhile for Lisa to prepare the green papaya for the papaya salad, which gave my stomach time to make more room. We learned that green papaya was younger and used as a vegetable, while older orange papaya was a fruit used mostly for desserts. We also learned that Thai people and Western people had different standards to describe how spicy they wanted their dishes. A little spicy meant 3 chili peppers for Westerns, but Thais would want at least 5. Moderate spice levels meant 5 chilies for westerners, but 10 for Thai people while "hot" meant 10 for Westerns but 15-20 for Thais. Lisa put five bird chili peppers in her papaya salad and it tasted plenty spicy to me. The instructor noted how he liked to put around 20 in the same dish for himself. There is no way I would've been able to eat such a dish.
Finally Lisa prepared some spring rolls. These started with pre-purchased spring rolls shells made with rice flour, but Lisa made the filling by hand. Once these were fried and served, my stomach could handle no more but the class was complete. For 900 baht, Lisa ended up with a Thai cook book, one-on-one instruction for one full day, a Chili Cooking Academy graduation certificate and we both had very full tummies.
The Chili Cooking Academy teacher was great. It was obvious that he was very enthusiastic about his trade and he spoke English that was easy to understand. He did a great job with Lisa because I can attest that every dish she made was superb. He also made a point of letting her know of substitute ingredients because it would not be easy to find everything she used in Canada. All in all, it is very easy to recommend the Chili Cooking Academy offered from the Eagle House guest house and I am excited that I may get to eat the results of what Lisa learned this day for many years to come. If you are thinking about taking this class, my only suggestion is to arrive hungry.
After spending five nights at the Eagle House I, Lisa and I decided to relocate somewhere a little closer to the night market action. We wandered around the area and found a place called Wild Orchid which offered fan cooled double-bed rooms with cable TV and Internet for 350 baht per night. We moved there and were happy to see the room also included the normal things a hotel room would have (soap, toilet paper, towels and blankets), but were not happy to find out that nobody knew what the wireless networking password was. Our room was quite cozy, tidy and even pretty quiet considering where we were. However we were disappointed in the lack of wireless Internet, so we moved out the next day.
The place we moved to was a short walk away and called the HI-Center Place Chiang Mai (a member of the Hostelling International club). This place offered the same services as the previous place, only it cost an extra 50 baht for the wireless Internet. Since this fee was charged only once, for as long as you wanted to stay, it seemed like a great deal. We selected another fan-cooled double-bed room for 350 baht a night and ended up staying at this hostel for a total of six nights. The bed was a little harder than the one at Wild Orchid, but at least there wasn't bars sticking through it like the one from the Eagle House. The Internet turned out to be quite fast compared to what we had gotten used to (2 megabit or so) and I downloaded several GBs worth of new TV shows and other videos.
Almost every night we stayed at the HI-Center Place hostel, we went out to the night market for dinner and some shopping. Quite often this included drinking Beer Chang, but of course I had to sample the other Thai beers such as Cheers, Singha, Leo and Archa. Singha and Beer Chang are definitely my favorites, but since Singha is 50 baht and Beer Chang is only 36 baht (at 7/11s everywhere), we end up drinking a lot of Beer Chang. To help commemorate all this beer drinking, I also bought an official Beer Chang t-shirt, even though I still have one from my last visit to Thailand.
One of our favorite places to eat at night was a food stand setup on the outskirts of the night market. They offered a wide variety of noodle and rice dishes, with your choice of beef, chicken or seafood for 30 baht. Actually it was 40 baht for the seafood, but since Lisa and I don't care for seafood much, our dishes were always 30 baht. We ate a lot of the different dishes offered here. I would often order two diners even though the portions were rather generous. I haven't stood on a scale for awhile, but I am starting to remember why I gained so much weight the first time I was in Thailand.
In the night market we would always end up finding something different that we wanted to buy. I tried several different kinds of dried fruit @ 35 baht a bag. My favorite was the dried kiwi fruit, but the dried apples, pineapples and papaya were also very tasty. Another treat I discovered in the night market was at the "rotee" stands. They had quite a few different flavors, but my favorite was the chocolate banana variety, which consisted of chopped banana and chocolate sauce wrapped in fresh roti bread and then covered with condensed milk and sugar. The night market seemed to also offer the cheapest shakes as we found banana shakes for only 10 baht.
Another good place to shop for handicrafts was on Sundays from the Pratu Tha Phae Gate and along Th Ratchadamnoen for the Sunday Walking Street market. Although the gate area had shops, restaurants and massage chairs set up all day, the walking street itself was closed for traffic around 18:00 and vendors setup for a night market that lasted until around midnight. This market was very extensive and seemed to be around twice the size of the night market. It also seemed to have the best prices on handicrafts and food and was very popular with both tourists and locals. There was not as many vendors here selling fake brand name watches and handbags, but this was probably the best place to buy souvenirs in the city.
After a few days of partying, shopping and eating, Lisa and I decided we had better go on one of the tours offered in the Chiang Mai area for foreigners. Many of the treks lasted several days, but Lisa and I were comfortable in our hostel and looked for single day tours. We ended up going back to the Eagle House and signing up for a 1 day trek that listed 1.5 hours on an elephant trek through the jungle, a walking trek through a national park to visit Karen and Hmong hill tribe people and a waterfall, and then 1.5 hours of white water bamboo rafting for 800 baht each. We signed up for Dec 18th and were told to show up at the Eagle House II facility at 7:00 that day.
We woke up early enough and walked the 15 minutes to Eagle House for 6:55 when the day came. On our trip there, we saw monks walking around bare-footed collecting alms. The act of receiving alms is a Thai Buddhist custom whereby monks go door to door with a bowl in hand to collect food from Thai households. I believe they are barefooted because this is a symbolic act of humility. This custom is how the monks get all of their food for the day and many of the Thai people participate in the practice of giving them food.
We arrived to Eagle House early, but after waiting around for awhile we soon learned that the Eagle House staff had messed up and that we should've showed up for 8:00. At least they provided us with free coffee as we waited, upon Lisa's request anyhow. Around 8:10 a man came around to gather us in a van and we drove around Chiang Mai to pick up three more people. It turns out that we could've been picked up at our hostel instead of walking to Eagle House and waiting for over an hour. After we had picked everybody up, we were told that it was an hour drive to the where we would ride elephants, so I caught up on my sleep.
The elephant trekking was in a very rural area outside the town of Mae Wang. There were around eight elephants all together, including one baby with its mother. Although the first woman, who was on this tour solo got to ride the elephant by herself, Lisa and I had to share one between us. This was a little disappointing because Lisa had the video camera and I had the still camera and we were hoping to use each other as the main subject, but the ride was still quite a thrill. I ended up taking a number of pictures of the woman from Helsinki and she took a number of pictures of Lisa and I. We will exchange theses photos via email once she is back in Finland.
The elephant tour took us down a path through some beautiful countryside, where we had to duck under branches and hang on tight going up and down steep hills. We purchased a bag of bananas to feed the elephant during this journey and the elephants were very used to receiving them. Every minute or so the elephant would stop and put its trunk up to us in hopes of receiving some. Although we stopped so the elephants could feed on some their normal food, they definitely seemed to favor the small bananas that we had. There were stands set up so that we could buy bananas for only 10 baht a bag. Near the end of our tour on the elephants, the path took us up a river before returning back to where the elephants lived. The river was deep enough that I would have trouble walking up it but of course the elephants treated it like I would treat a puddle.
The other elephant guides seemed to be a little more enthusiastic about treating their guests than ours was, unfortunately for us. Our guide merely sat on the elephants head, sang the occasional song, and kept the elephant on its best behavior by striking its head with a bamboo poll. This seemed cruel to us at first, but I have a feeling that those strikes hurt the elephant about as much as a mosquito would hurt us with its sting. The other guides were getting off the elephant and letting the guests drive while taking their pictures or even switching spots and letting the guests drive by sitting on the elephants head.
The next phase of our trip was trekking through the jungle to a waterfall and then to two different villages occupied by some of Thailand's hill tribe people. We all got back in the tour van and headed to the Op Khan National Park. We were able to drive right up to the where the first village was located and we were soon walking around a Karon village with another tour group. We sat down and our guide gave us a brief explanation of who these people were and where they came from, as well as some of their traditions and beliefs. Most of the women were actively working on hand weaving silk garments which were available for sale. After we bought two gorgeous silk scarves for 120 baht each, we asked and were told it would be about 3 days labor to make each one.
The Karon people sure lived rather primitively compared to western standards, but I did notice that they had a satellite dish on one of the nearby hills. I didn't see TVs in any of the houses (just AM/FM radios), but I presume there was some type of community hall or a village elder that had satellite television available. This Karon village was not exactly typical of other ones in more remote parts because they received thousands of tourist visitors a year and probably had a reasonable income from it. When any of the people noticed that I had my camera pointed at them, they'd look at me and smile for the photo. I had felt a little apprehensive about these organized invasions of people's privacy, but I felt a lot better about things when they seemed happy to have their picture taken.
After spending some time in the Karon village, the two tour groups joined together to be led through the jungle path by a guide that was local to the area. On our trip to the Mae Wong waterfall, the guide would stop to point out interesting vegetation and also explain some things of cultural importance. For example, he showed us what a teak tree looked like and then explained how younger teak (such as what we looking at) was too soft to be used for furniture or construction but that at 20 years the wood would become harder and more useful. He also explained that teak has long had great value in the area because it was the only native type of tree that the termites would not eat. The richest people in the area would use teak to construct their entire house for that reason.
After about an hour of walking through the Op Khan National Park, we reached the beautiful Mae Wong waterfall. Its height was around 15 meters and there was enough mist coming off of it that I was worried about my camera lens getting wet. The vegetation surrounding it was very thick so that it looked like the water was falling out of sheer green vegetation but there were lots of rocks at the bottom of it to climb across and relax on. I made my way down the slippery rocks to find out the water was too cool to be swimming in, which surprised me considering how hot it was out. We spent about a half hour hanging out at the waterfall where I tried to take as many pictures as I could. After this we set off down a path through the jungle toward a Hmong people village.
Before we reached the village we approached a couple of fields used by the Hmong people to grow rice and soy beans. The guide explained how these fields would've been used for poppy seed production until recent times, but that the Thai government had been pretty successful in stopping this practice. Of course the reason they grew the poppy flowers was to get the seeds which would be used in the production of herion, opium, or other optiates. The Hmong farmers would not have done this themselves, but sold their crops to local drug dealers and cartels for much more money than they could sell other food products. The guide explained how these villages were made with very portable houses and furniture because they would have to move every year or two to avoid detection by the Thai army.
Once we were at the Homng village, we entered a house for a guided tour and explanation of how they live. They Hmong men could have up to four wives, but everybody would live together in a single roomed hut. There was one area that had curtains surrounding it for privacy and another area that had lots of rice in storage. Besides that there was an area for cooking which included an indoor fire pit and a lot of soot on the roof over it. The Hmong people didn't seem to do any weaving but instead made many of the different types of handicrafts that we had seen for sale in the Chiang Mai night market and craft stores.
Our original tour guide had driven the van to meet us at the Hmong village, so after a drive down an extremely bumpy dirt road we drove to a restaurant for our included lunch. As always in Thailand, it was delicious and consisted of a potato-leek soup, some fried rice and veggies with a fried egg on top and some pineapple and watermelon for dessert. Lisa and I both had a second serving of the fried rice and there was still lots left over when we were full. From here we drove again to where we would start our bamboo rafting experience.
These bamboo rafts were not as luxurious as the ones we had seen in China and we would definitely be getting wet, so again I cursed that my waterproof camera had died and we left all our video equipment behind in the van. The rafts were really just a half dozen thick bamboo poles strapped together and you could either sit on them (and get a cold wet bum) or try to balance and stand as we went down the river. The water was much cooler than you'd expect for Thailand, so all of the tourists did their best to stay dry.
There was a guide with a poll that he used to navigate us down the river and an extra poll which I used to assist him. Although at first I did my best to help him and speed us along, it wasn't long before we had passed all the other rafts and then I squatted down on my knees to look around and enjoy the scenery. There were times when the water descended down rapids and small waterfalls and some of the other tourists were scared enough to disembark the boat, walk down the riverbank and then reboard when the water had settled, but of course Lisa and I were not amongst them.
It was quite a beautiful trip that lasted just short of an hour and then we boarded the van to be driven back to Chiang Mai. One of the enterprising locals had taken pictures of us and had them printed out and framed for us to buy for 100 baht, but without being able to purchase them in a digital format I declined. It was a great picture but it was going to be a pain to get it back to Canada and we really did not need another picture frame. Everybody else on our tour purchased theirs though so at least the local girl did not go home empty handed.
It took about an hour to drive us home and this time we got dropped off right beside our hostel. Although this trip had its share of problems and wasn't really as good as it was advertised, Lisa and I were both still happy with the experience and felt we got our 800 bath's worth of entertainment. As I write this now though, I wish we had purchased more than just the two hand-weaved silk scarves that we picked up in the Karon village. It was really cool to see them actually making the beautiful garments and buying them directly from the hands that made them. Of course it was also a steal to pick up three days worth of labor (never mind the cost of the silk) for only 120 baht each.
The clothes we wore trekking ended up smelling of elephant and dust, so the next day we decided to get laundry done. In Chiang Mai it cost around 20-30 baht a kilo to have somebody do your laundry for you and if you pay 30 baht you can pretty much be assured that you will get your laundry back in a great state. However Lisa and I noticed another option on our walks through the streets of Chiang Mai. We called it "street laundry", which was really a Laundromat which was setup on an open sidewalk outside of an art store. There were three of four different types of washing machines ranging from 20 baht to 50 baht and driers available at 10 baht for 10 minutes.
The machines for 30 baht had a maximum rating of 7 kilograms, which was ample for the laundry we had. We had to purchase some detergent from the 7/11 next door (10 baht) and then loaded the machine up and put in our three 10 baht coins. Unfortunately the washing machine we picked had a problem and it did not work after this. However there was a phone number listed for problems, so we gave it a quick call and the woman who owned the machine visited us about 10 minutes later. She fixed the problem and an hour later Lisa transferred the clothes to a drier.
Lisa was doing the laundry by herself at this point, because I had gone into one of the local massage shops for a full body Thai massage. Lisa previously had a massage from this place and recommended it to me. It cost only 120 baht for a full hour, so it was also among the cheapest options in the city. We had seen some places that listed full hour massages for only 100 baht, but the normal price seemed to be 150 to 200 baht, with the more exotic massages (oil & herbs) costing up to 400 baht an hour. On the cheaper end, Lisa and I had also gotten foot massages or neck and back massages at only 60 baht for 30 minutes (outside of the night market or the Sunday walking street market).
Thai massages are like a mixture of yoga and stretching and are quite unlike any other type of massage that I've had before. The woman started by massaging my feet and generally worked her way up to the top of my head from there. I was amazed at how strong this tiny little woman seemed as she manipulated my body and got me to stretch and bend in ways that I had never thought of before. Sometimes it hurt a little, but afterward I felt thoroughly relaxed and refreshed. It was a difficult feeing to explain but definitely a good one and I will be doing this again. I remember that these massages cost much more in Bangkok and the south of Thailand, so I may as well enjoy as many as I can while in the cheaper north end of Thailand.
The last major event for us in the Chiang Mai area was a visit to a place called Tiger Kingdom. They advertised themselves as the only place in the world that combined a tiger theme park and restaurant together, but the real draw for us was the opportunity to actually play with the tigers. We negotiated with one of the many red shared taxis of Chiang Mai to drive us out there for a cost of 60 baht each. I am not sure if we paid a tourist price or not, but since Tiger Kingdom was situated in a town called Mae Rim about 18 kms out of town, it seemed like a good deal to us.
After getting to the Tiger Kingdom we saw that there was several different packages that guest could buy. It started at 500 baht for 15 minutes with the tiger babies (1-2 months old), went to 300 baht for 15 minutes with 3-4 month olds or 6-12 month olds, and finally it was 300 baht for 20 minutes with full grown tiger adults. I could see visitors playing with the adults from where we stood and they seemed docile enough to help quell my fear, so this is the package Lisa and I got. After paying and waiting for the next window of visitors to enter the cage, Lisa and I walked into a cage with 4 adult tigers (and 4 tiger handlers to make sure our time was safe.)
The handlers at Tiger Kingdom were really cool and showed us how we could lay next to the tigers and explained how they liked to have their bellies rubbed. At the same time, they advised us not to touch the face or front paws as this encouraged them to play. I am not sure exactly what they meant by "play", but I assumed that meant they would tear us apart, so I followed the rules. The handlers also noted how tigers generally sleep for 16 to 18 hours a day and would normally be most active at night. They were all definitely in a very laid back state as we visited them and were able to get very close to all four of the adults.
We walked with a handler from one tiger to another, rubbing their bellies, laying our heads on their bellies, and generally just cuddling and petting them. Every now and again, one would move suddenly and send scare us a little, but really none of them ever acted with even the least bit of aggression. I took hundreds of pictures and we took lots of video of the whole experience. As I am a bit of a cat lover, as my kitties Stitch and Oscar at home can attest, I absolutely loved this experience and will probably remember it for the rest of my life. In fact Lisa and I enjoyed it so much that we decided to do it again as soon as our 20 minutes were up.
On our way back from the cage with the adult, we passed by what we thought were the 3-4 month old tigers in their own cage. They were making baby "roar" noises and were so cute that we thought we had better visit them next. After purchasing our tickets though we realized we had made a mistake and that these babies were really the 1 to 2 month olds that cost 500 baht to visit instead of the 300 baht we had paid to visit them 3 to 5 month olds. Once we had sorted out where we were supposed to go, we took off our shoes and went into an indoor cage with five female 3 to 4 month old tigers.
These tigers were a little more active than the adults that we had just been in with but they were really more interesting in playing than in hunting or other predatorily activities. Two of them were playing with each other and the handlers ensured that the playing never got too serious; so that we could all stay in close proximity and take pictures. Actually we were able to touch and cuddle with all five tigers again, and although this didn't seem as cool to me as playing with the adult tigers, they were definitely softer and cuddlier than their 150 kilogram counterparts.
It was another terrific experience, even if it wasn't exactly what we thought we had signed up for. However by the time the 15 minutes had ended, we decided we had taken enough pictures and already had memories that would last a life time, so we decided to go back to Chiang Mai. As I sit here writing about this, I sort of wish we had gone a third session to spend some time with the baby tigers because they were absolutely adorable and I may never have an opportunity like that again. If you are a cat lover at all, I would highly recommend a visit to the Tiger Kingdom if you are in the Chiang Mai area. It was an experience I will never forget and the tigers all seemed to be living a good life.
By Monday December 22nd, 2008, we decided that we had better head up to Chiang Rai if we wanted to see more of northern Thailand, because we had already reserved an over-night train ticket from Chiang Mai to Bangkok for December 27th. We decided to take a bus to Chiang Rai, which is a smaller city near the "Golden Triangle", an area formerly famous for its opium production that borders Laos and Myanmar (Burma). The bus ride was scheduled to last nearly 3 hours and would take to the northern limits of Thailand. There are three classes of bus tickets between Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai, and we opted for the 2nnd class tickets at a cost 132 baht each. First class tickets were only 169 baht/each and we didn't bother to inquire what a 3rd class ticket would cost because we still remembered how miserable the bus rides were in Indonesia and didn't need to save money that badly.
Latest Comments (1)
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Awesome blog (reply)
Dec 26, 2008 10:17 EST by ndsquirrel
Thanks for all the details. I am planning a trip to Thailand in 2009 and was thinking of going to the Chiang Mai area this time vice the typical beaches.
Your description of the preparation for Som Tom (papaya salad) has my mouth watering. I need to go to the local Thai restaraunt soon.
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7 votes 
