Hear Me Roar

After the long day we had endured the day before we gave ourselves a well-earned lie-in and then grabbed some of the free breakfast on offer. We would only have 3 nights in Chiang Mai so we would need to do a “smash and grab” to make sure we got as much as we could out of it. We had grabbed a map and were making a plan of action before seeing the sights of Chiang Mai. I had short-listed Chiang Mai from Day 1 as I knew of a place called Tiger Kingdom that some of my friends had been to. We were also hoping to do some elephant trekking if possible, but it seemed that time may be against us.

Within the hotel complex there was a lady sitting at a desk that was serving as tourist information and tour guide/organiser. She advised that we could get a ride to Tiger Kingdom and back for 200 Baht – a great deal as it was a long drive out of the city and we were willing to part with 200 each way, at least! She also advised us that she could organise/sell us an elephant trekking day tour for the next day, only 900 Baht each (about £18). We were sold, and said we would be back at 2pm for Tiger Kingdom and then be around for 8:30am the next day for pick up to go to the elephants.

The Tawan Court hotel

It was time for us to hit the streets of Chiang Mai and we headed across the moat that circles (in a square, if that makes sense) the inner city. Once inside you could see people loved the place – much less busier and frantic than Bangkok and with a certain old-style charm to it. There were countless temples mixed in with the general shops and restaurants, of varying shapes and sizes. We headed down the main road until we hit one of the main temples, Wat Phra Singh. It was amazing, with monks walking round, drums in the background and numerous large and small temples to see. I had to pay 20 Baht to enter the main one, as a Foreigner Tax essentially, but I think it was worth it to enjoy the serenity within. We worked out that this wasn’t the main temple that was in the middle of our map, but that one would have to wait til our last day as we needed to get back to the hotel to get to Tiger Kingdom. On the way back I bought a book.

Inside the main temple - 20 Baht well spent!

Our helpful tour guide, Long Tip (I may not have spelt this correctly), would be driving us there with her “partner” who was waiting with her in the hotel. Her partner was a guy called Win (again, unsure of spelling) but seemed much younger, and, how do I put this…… seemed like he would prefer the company of men rather than women. Anyways, we drove up to Tiger Kingdom and Long Tip filled us in on Thai culture and where she had been round the world. Win would not be joining us with the tigers as he was afraid they would eat him, so they said they were happy to wait until we had done our thing and drive us back.

Once inside we chose which cages we wanted to go in – James went for the Big and the Small cats, whilst I went for the Big and the Smallest cats. It has always been a dream of mine to stroke/hold a tiger cub and now it looked like I would be fulfilling that dream. As we entered the compound we were allowed to walk around at our leisure and get up close and personal with some of the tigers, although they were still in their cages so we got as close as we dared, without sticking our fingers through the fence, obviously. It was unbelievable. We have been to zoos before and got reasonably close, but nothing like this. And they didn’t seem drugged in any way, which is what most cynics say about the place, because they were play-fighting and wandering round with seemingly no drowsiness whatsoever.

Do they looked drugged to you???

There was also one lion in the entire kingdom, and he just looked completely out of place. But again, he seemed reasonably happy, and I don’t know if they were attempting breed “ligers” or not, but it can be done……apparently. Once we were done looking at them through the fences it was time to get in with them. We arrived at the Smallest cats enclosure and I scrubbed my hands and took of my shoes so I could put on the communal flip-flops, which wasn’t exactly delightful. And then I was ushered in by one of the keepers, who would be my guide whilst I got close to the cubs.

A tiger

The first ones I came up against were the 3 month old cubs, pretty big in actuality. I was able to stroke them and use them as a pillow, if I so wanted. They were amazing, and they were happy to play around with my guide without getting claws into him, or me for that matter. And then he took me into the youngest cubs, only a month old. They were tiny and so cute. They were not allowed to lick my arms as they might get an infection or something (I don’t think it was anything personal, I had had a shower that morning), but the young cub I was playing with was fascinated by my wristlets and kept trying to grab and chew them. It was all going so well until it rolled over in my arms and trumped. It didn’t seem so cute after that. But that was item number 2 ticked off from my Bucket List (with number 1 being the skydive in New Zealand).

One month old tiger chewing me arm

Next up was James in with the Small cats. And when it says “Small cats” it is a total misconception. These were not small by any stretch and they were having a great time playing around with each other that thy barely even noticed that James was in there, sticking out an arm in the hope of stroking one mid-play. There were different rules with these ones as they could probably do you some serious damage, but he escaped unscathed and happy to have gone in.

James + tiger + keeper's bum

And then it was time for the big boys. We wouldn’t be the only ones in there as they took a few people in at a time, but we would get our own time and space with a few of them, as there were quite a few in the enclosure. These monsters were about 180kilos and could take you out with a single swipe. We were taken in by one of the guides and he got us right up close to them, stroking their backs and lying beside them, with a feeling of amazement and fear rolled into one. The one downside was that all the guides seemed to be Manchester United supporters and kept saying that the cats were called Van Persie or Rooney, etc. But it wasn’t going to take the sheen off the day, it had been one of the most amazing experiences of my life and I will never forget it. Ever.

Tim, James and "Van Persie"......apparently

Once we had been driven back to the hotel by Long Tip we grabbed a shower and explored the Night Bazaar just down from the hotel. We found a place to eat and ordered some Kao Soi, as recommended by Long Tip. Afterwards we had a wander round of the markets and stalls that littered the Night Bazaar, but kept our wallets in our pockets for now as there would be plenty of time to buy some trinkets later. We found ourselves a nice little bar for another round of large Changs and watched the world go by. It was mainly motorbikes and tuk-tuks, but you get the idea.

Once back at the hotel we opened the 3^rd round of large Changs and were overjoyed at the fact that the internet was now working properly, as it had been out of action since we had arrived. It was late by the time we turned in, and I hoped that the Chang-induced haze would not hinder our day of fun with the elephants the following day.