Day 114 - Chiang Mai

We're up and straight down for breakfast instantly realising that Chiang Mai is much cheaper than anywhere else we've been in Thailand, and then get ready for our day out as our 'driver' that Stella booked for us last night is picking us up at 10am.

The driver is right on time and we make our way up the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep temple which is right at the top of the Doi Suthep mountain. Pretty much as soon as we are out of the Old Town which is where we are staying the road starts going up, the drive to the temple was just over half an hour and the entire time we were going up, we didn't realise how far up we actually were, Si's ears even popped ha!

Anyway we arrive at the temple and walk up the 309 steps to the entrance for the temple, as we are foreigners we have to pay to go into the temple but its only 30baht each and the ticket they give you lists the rules of the temple, one of which is to always keep your head lower than the monks and the buddha images ... easy enough for most people but Si was going to struggle!

The temple is very pretty lots of colourful buddhas, rooms where you can go and get blessed by a monk and they even had young monks performing in weird costumes which was fun to watch. We made sure we got a picture of the white elephant statue as, the legend of the temple is that a monk found a shoulder bone and believed it was buddhas shoulder bone, they split it in half and put one half on the back of a white elephant, the white elephant then climbed to the top of the Doi Suthep mountain, trumpeted 3 times before dying and this was taken as a sign that this is where the temple should be built.

After we'd seen everything we headed back down the 309 steps (much easier going down than up!) and went and found our driver who was patiently waiting for us. We headed back down the mountain and on to tiger kingdom about 30 mins from the temple.

We arrived at Tiger Kingdom and you are instantly asked what package you would like, there are 4 different sizes of tiger that you can go in with and you have to pay a different fee for each, I chose to do the smallest (1-2 months old) and we both wanted to go in with the big tigers (I think they are 10 months and older).

First we are shown to the smallest tigers and wait our turn to go in, as we're waiting we go and have a nosey at some of the tigers in the surrounding enclosures the closest one to us was sleeping and when we asked one of the workers his name she said he was called Tone and he was the daddy of all the tigers .. no wonder he was tired :)

A few minutes later and it was time for me to go in with the baby tigers, there were only 2 in the enclosure and I sat down and began stroking away. The one I was stroking was only 1 month old so didnt have a name yet but he was soooo cute, about the same size as a normal cat when it is fully grown but when you stroke them you can just feel pure muscle under their fur. Si wasn't allowed in with me as he hadnt paid but the girl that worked there took some pics for me.

My 10 minutes were soon up and we went for a walk around and saw tigers playing in a big pool of water (i thought cats didnt like water?!) and then continued round to the big tiger enclosure. There were 3 tigers in the enclosure all massive, we went in and were stroking one called Edward. You are told before entering the enclosure that you cannot stroke their front paws, head, approach them from the front or promote any 'playful' behaviour so we stayed towards the back of him. We both stroked him and had our pictures took with him, I lay on him and gave him belly a bit of a tickle :) and them we had our picture taken together, Edward kept wacking us with his tail cause flies were landing on him and boy we felt it, it stunned me the first time got me right on my head!

As we were walking out of the enclosure one of the tigers was getting a bit fed up and jumped up at the gate that lets people in and out so we stayed well away until it had calmed down. It lay on the floor near the gate and one of the guys that worked there pointed at him for us to go and stroke him but we thought better of it! Just as we'd got out of the enclosure the same tiger was up at the gate again and the guys that worked there were preparing one of the pens to get it out of the enclosure, maybe give it a bit of a break from people.

We left with everything still intact and went and found our driver again for him to take us back to the hostel. We grabbed some lunch and jumped in a tuk tuk (you'd think we'd of learnt from Bangkok) to Phantip Plaza where they sell lots of computer stuff for Si to have a look around. The tuk tuk wasnt actually that bad this time I dont think we feared for our lives once so the drivers must be more chilled in Chiang Mai.

We wandered around the mall for a while but since it is quite new there wasn't much stuff and Si couldn't find anything that he wanted, we were within walking distance of the night bazar which is a big night market here so we decided to go and have a drink until all the stalls open and have a look while we're here.

A few drinks later and we could see all the stalls had opened so we pottered around for a few hours seeing what bargains we could get. We both ended up getting a bag each, some tat and I got some long baggy pants for the elephants on monday (Si says they're MC Hammer pants). Happy with our purchases we jumped in a Songa Thew back to the hostel for some tea and an early night as we are up early in the morning for a day trip to Chiang Rai, the Golden Triangle and Laos.