6/29/13

Chiang Kong-> Chiang Mai

We got up yesterday and headed straight to breakfast. I was so happy to have a bowl full of Frosted Flakes and not eggs! After breakfast, we loaded up our things into 2 different vans. I sat in the back of the van squished with Santi and Sarah. We then made our 5 hour drive toward Chiang Mai.

We made a couple stops along the way. It was raining along the way a bit and our driver drove like a madman. We did get to our hotel quickly, though.

Chiang Mai was a very cute city. It is more developed than a lot of places in Laos. There were cute fountains in the city and lots of shops and restaurants. Our hotel is called Chiang Mai Main Gate. We checked in to our reasonably comfortable room (it even had a shower with a tub! Score! And a funny elementary school style toilet :) and then met back downstairs at 1:00 for lunch.

We walked over to the restaurant that served Italian and Thai food (random). I ordered just a chicken sandwich and fries. While we were waiting for our food, Laura and I went over to a booking agent to book our cooking class. It only cost $24 for a half day! I was also surprised that we were the only ones that did it.

Soon after going back to the restaurant our food came. It actually wasn't all hat bad. After we paid, we headed over across the street to pick up our transportation to Tiger Kingdom.

We thought Tiger Kingdom might have been closer but it took about 30 mins. to get there. When we arrived, we got to choose which package we wanted. I chose to just see the baby tigers (2-3 months) which cost 620 baht, which is about $20. Most of the others in the group chose to do the medium and large cats. It cost nearly double so I was just fine doing only the little ones.

The staff member picked us up and walked us over to the small cat area. After reading the instructions we were let in the pen. There were probably about 7 baby tigers either laying around or playing with each other or the staff members. I went right over to one that was laying down and having a nap and immediately started petting him. We weren't allowed to touch their heads or their front paws because it makes them aggravated but they really enjoyed having their backs petted. I got some pictures taken of me laying on the floor with them and laying on their backs while I pet their tummies. It was so cool to see how similar they are to house cats! They love to play with each other and they love to sleep! After about 10 minutes, we left and headed over to the middle size tiger pen.

They were about 9-12 months old and were considerably bigger. I didn't pay to go in but most of the group did. They got pictures with the tigers who were a bit more intimidating than the little ones. The group then continued on to the big cats who were huge!

After the pens, we checked out the newborn nursery. You aren't allowed to touch them or play with them. You can only take pictures of them with their handlers. One of the babies was getting a "bath" and was so cute and fuzzy! We all kept saying how we wish we could pet and feed them. It really made me wish I could work with tigers so I would be allowed to play with them whenever I wanted!

After checking out a big lion that was also there, but off limits to the public, we headed back to the hotel. Around 7:00, we headed to a pub called Doo Dee pub. I ordered a penne arrabiata which was actually really good! It was the perfect portion, too.

We caught a tuk tuk to the night market. We headed to where the "Lady Boy" show was but we had about 15 minutes to walk around. There was similar stuff to what we saw in Laos but way more geared toward tourists (ie knockoff brand clothes and purses and tacky crap.) I didn't buy anything so we headed back to the show. It was a cabaret show with loud music, flashy costumes and dancing. Kristine and i just kept looking at each other and laughing. We watched about 5 acts before we decided to walk around.

We walked around the huge market with high expectations. I purposely didn't buy a lot of things before in Laos because I I thought Chiang Mai would have everything I wanted for a good price. I was wrong. Hardly anyone wanted to bargain and everything was about double the prices in Laos. I ended up just getting 3 scarfs for about $1 each. We got a tuk tuk back to the hotel overall feeling a bit defeated around 11.

I took a shower and quickly packed my bags because I knew I had to be up early for my cooking class.

Until next time!