Date: 16th May 2011

Place: Chiang Mai

Weather: a bit rainy, until it rained heavily later on

We new that day we wanted to go to Tiger Kingdom so wanted to get up at around 8.30am. Turned out my phone was set to pm instead of am so my alarm didn't go off and we didn't wake up until around 11am. It didn't matter though because the park was open all day and we didn't need long in there.

Jeffery, the driver from the night before, gave us a lift there for petrol money and then waited until we had finished. We decided to see the biggest and the smallest tigers because there was an offer on. It was the smallest tigers first which were adorable!

We had 15 minutes with them just stroking them, we weren't supposed to pick them up, tickle their belly or let them bite or lick us because they weren't trained. Well Aimee managed to get one to almost bite her. Even though they were majorly cute I was a bit disappointed because I thought they would be more playful and feisty, instead they just lay down for most of the time, until just before we were about to leave when they got playful.

Next up was the biggest tigers. I was soo nervous about this part because they could easily tear us apart. We went into the enclosure and I was instantly told to sit down next to this Tiger to have a picture. It was the strangest thing in the world, casually having my picture taken next to this huggee cat that could eat my head in one bite. We got some great snaps though especially when the one next to Carmen yawned just as she was doing a growling pose. I felt pretty safe most of the time, it was just when the Tigers walked towards you that it gets scary. But the trainers are always there and they know how to control them.

When we had finished that we had a wonder around the place and watched some of the medium sized Tigers playing literally like big cats with the trainers. We even heard a big raw which we found out came from a Lion that was just further off the guest path. It was huge and amazing, it looked right at us!

Since we were already over that side of Chiang Mai we decided to go to the elephant camp as well. We sat down to watch the show with some coconuts that we had just bought but had been looking for for about a month. The show was absolutely amazing! The elephant started off by coming in holding a sign and doing a bit of showing off like lifting their legs up so their trainers could climb on and off them. They then came out playing harmonicas and swinging their trunks around in circles. There was one cute one at the back of the pack that had a bell around its neck and he would run around shaking his head so that it jingled.

After that the show consisted of them playing football, painting pictures which were amazingly good, playing darts and playing basketball. At the end they all came to the side so that we could have pictures with them. They would wrap their trunk around you so that it was like an arm over your shoulder. It was so strange because you could feel them breathing on your chest. They then took the trainers hat off their head and placed it on yours and tapped it on like they were patting your head, absolutely incredible!

When we got back to the hotel, Carmen and I went in the pool to do some lengths as belly had unfortunately got us! I actually managed to power out 100 lengths and I vowed to do that everyday that I had a pool that I could use. After that we got ready to go out and whilst we were doing so none other than Siobhan shows up (yes I learnt how to spell her name finally). She had dinner with us but then because we were going on a jungle trek early the next day she decided to go back instead of coming out with us. Of course we went out because were hardcore!!

We went to the Reggae bar that was recommended to us and it was actually really good with a live band. A guy started dancing and Carm dared me to go and dance with him. I would have done but then his group of mates went to join him and I thought it might look a bit strange. Well she proved me wrong by going up and dancing with them, so I shortly followed.

Turned out the guy who was the first dancer was really nice. His name is Brad and we sat down and had a chat whilst everyone else went out to smoke. We were talking for most of the night and then when everyone went back to bed we sat with our feet in the pool for a while. It was awesome he was so easy to talk to. I got a bit intimidated when I found out he went to Cambridge University! He claimed to be the dumbest one there…but still, its Cambridge!! He was unfortunately leaving to go home in 11 days and was going to Bangkok the day after I got back from my overnight jungle trek so it was going to be hard to see him again. I added him on facebook since he didn't have a phone and said Id message him when I got back. I then went to bed at 5.00am ready to be up at 7.30am. Oh dear.