Tiger Kingdom
Chiang Mai, Thailand - Day 6
I built a few open, unscheduled days into our trip and today was one of them. Over breakfast we decided to go to Tiger Kingdom and meet some big cats! While trying to hail a songthaew, a taxi driver came over and offered a ride. He told us 300 baht for the two of us to Tiger Kingdom and back, which sounded fair. Soon we would get a lesson in how taxi drivers get around so quick. The trick is to expand the road. Shoulder? It's the road! Median? On coming lane? Sidewalk? It's the road! At Tiger Kingdom we paid to interact with the biggest, smallest, and new born tigers. We saw the biggest first. Donnie, Oliver, and Pepsi were all good cats and wanted to come home with us. I quickly learned that softly scratching them was akin to a tickle. You generally don't want to tickle a tiger. After that we saw some four month old tigers and then the cherry on top: the new born cub. He was incredibly playful and adorable. As we walked out our taxi driver found us and we asked if we could add a destination to Doi Suthep. Doi in Thai means mountain, and on top of said mountain there is a golden temple overlooking Chiang Mai. We bartered for a price and were off. Lots of stairs. Below the temple there was a Thai market. We got some food to snack on including grub worms and crickets. When we made it back to 'Old Town' we rewarded ourselves with a foot massage.
