Today was the day for Tigers!

We called Mr Nalad but he was busy so we got Josh, our driver for the day as it turned out. Best thing that happened. He was absolutely hilarious, clearly had driven a lot of Australians around as it turns out he understood our slang and was really able to throw the comments back.

Comment of the morning to Philip:
Josh - I'll take you to see something that you haven't seen before
Philip - What's that?
Josh (absolutely serious) - Kangaroo
Probably had to be there but huge laughs from us all.

And it was off to Tiger Kingdom. We had been promising Miss A tigers and she was pretty excited. Tiger Kingdom is about 40 minutes drive from Chiang Mai. Tiger Kingdom is a part of Ubon Zoo which was founded in 2000. The branch outside Chiang Mai was opened in 2008 to give the tigers more space and bigger enclosures and to help raise money to support this and their care.

I was wary about the possibility that the tigers were drugged as I have been to the Tiger Temple outside Kanchanaburi and although I have no evidence that their tigers are drugged the big tigers are awfully docile in an environment of a large number of tourists, some of which we all know can be forceful when they want something, the tourists that is!

Tiger Kingdom is open about how they train their tigers and all of their tigers are born and raised in captivity. From the time they are born they are touched by humans so I guess in a way they may become somewhat desensitised although as it turns out they can be quite focused when they want to be. They are very open that without the customers there would be no money to support the tigers so the customer generally gets what they want but they are open that if all you want is to be passive around the tigers and not have photos taken they are happy for this to happen.

It turns out that if you are under 15 you can only go in with the smallest tigers. This suited me as they were the ones I wanted to see so I was happy to go with Miss A. Phil and mum came with us and dad, Philip and Marie opted for the big tigers.

After waiting for a while we were finally in with the baby tigers :) There were three 6 month old tigers in one pen and two 4 month old ones in the next area. Although Miss A was excited it was still pretty confronting for her especially when one of the 6 month old tigers took a particular liking to her. Amazing how she saw that coming before us. She wasn't very keen to go near that one, which now makes perfect sense.

Lots of photos later and it was time to leave the pens. A good experience and much better than my previous ones with tigers in Thailand.

We walked around and had a look at the other tigers, with Miss A taking a particular liking to the big ones! There were three tigers ( including a rare white tiger cub) in a 'nursery' who had been born in the previous couple of weeks but even with both Miss A and I trying to convince Phil to take one home it didn't happen :(

Amusing that the guy whose second language was english could manage to get Philip a couple of times, absolutely priceless and dad thoroughly loved it.

Back to Rimping Village for lunch and a bit of a rest before taking on the temple on the mountain in the afternoon.
Lunch for me was black pepper chicken, absolutely yum. Spicy enough and even Miss A had a go, although she doesn't mind spicy anyway. The Rimping Fried Rice, the hotel specialty was just as good. Definitely recommend those if you happen to be staying there. Cocktails (well we are on holidays) weren't as good as we have had but all the same not too bad.

And then onto Wat Phra Doi Suthep temple. It is on the top of Doi Suthep mountain, which I had forgotten how high it was. It is 15km from Chiang Mai, straight up and around the very steep mountain. Amazingly people were cycling up the mountain. The combination of the steepness,  the temperature being in the high 30's and pretty much the sheer danger of the winding road and buses and cars, we couldn't believe people were actually doing it.

Doi Suthep temple:

"According to legend, a monk named Sumanathera from the Sukhothai Kingdom had a dream. In this vision he was told to go to Pang Cha and look for a relic. Sumanathera ventured to Pang Cha and found a bone. Many claim it was Gautama Buddha's shoulder bone. The relic displayed magical powers: it glowed, it was able to vanish, it could move and replicate itself. Sumanathera took the relic to King Dhammaraja, who ruled Sukhothai. The eager Dhammaraja made offerings and hosted a ceremony when Sumanathera arrived. However, the relic displayed no abnormal characteristics, and the king, doubtful of the relic's authenticity, told Sumanathera to keep it.

King Nu Naone of Lan Na heard of the relic and bade the monk to bring it to him. In 1368, with Dharmmaraja's permission, Sumanathera took the relic to what is now Lamphun, in northern Thailand. Once there, the relic broke into two pieces. The smaller piece was enshrined at a temple in Suandok. The other piece was placed by the king on the back of a white elephant which was released into the jungle. The elephant is said to have climbed up Doi Suthep, at that time called Doi Aoy Chang (Sugar Elephant Mountain), stopped, trumpeted three times, then dropped dead. This was interpreted as an omen. King Nu Naone immediately ordered the construction of a temple at the site."

There are two choices on how to get up to the temple itself, a cable car or 209 steps. . . Needless to stay with a two year old we probably would still be getting up there if we had taken the stairs!

The temple really is quite a site to behold. So much gold leaf and coloured gems interspersed with truely spectacular buildings and spires. We were even lucky enough to witness what we think was the afternoon monk blessing.

Unfortunately for us Miss A decided that the temple was in fact just a big adventure playground so after a look around I tried to keep her entertained so Phil could at least have a look at the statues, in particular the white elephant statue explaining the significance of the temple and it's placement.

Back into town and we decided to check out 'Duke's Night Bazaar' restaurant. Basically a flash American style restaurant that as it turns out was pretty much as expected. Big serves of food and although it was good food it wasn't anything that was particularly extraordinary and probably didn't justify the cost.

The ribs were good but Philip's are better :) and quite possibly some of the biggest pizza's I've seen.

The Night Bazaar runs along most of the roads within the township and mum, dad, Marie and I wandering into the Bazaar whilst Phil and Philip took Miss A back to the hotel. It's been a couple of big days and although she is a great trooper and deals so incredibly well with everything at the same time she really needed to go to bed.

 A few purchases in the markets and Marie and I people watched and fended off the wooden frog sellers (Yes I had some and they will know about them soon) while waiting for mum and dad to finish.

I'm surprised how much the market has changed in 6 years. Still a lot of the same things but a lot more artisan goods which was nice to see.

A tuk-tuk ride back to the hotel and Phil had only just managed to get Miss A to sleep. The last night in Chiang Mai and it was only fitting for a few last drinks around the pool. We were the only ones there and the quiet was amazing given the amount of people normally in Chiang Mai.

Mum's legs were still giving her grief so Marie, mum and I took a walk down the road to see if we could find a masseuse still open to get her some relief. Unfortunately it wasn't to be although maybe the walk helped a little, especially as it had cooled down and it was nice to be able to wander. 

All too soon it was off to bed and our last day in Thailand awaits.