Following the Dream

Christian November 20th, 2008

     Bangkok is busy, bustling, loud, and chaotic.  This is why we have decided to leave it for last.  We flew into Bangkok late on Thursday evening from Melbourne and decided to stay close to the airport since we had a flight out to Chiang Mai early the next morning.  Our fancy airport hotel cost us a mere $23 dollars a night.  This included breakfast, cable tv, 24 hour room and spa service, and a balcony.  We called home and looked up a few things about Chiang Mai on the internet before going to bed.  The next morning, we had to leave the hotel early for our one hour flight to Chiang Mai.  Upon arrival we grabbed a taxi to our guesthouse, located on the East side of the Ping River.  We were impressed by the value for the money.  For $15 we had air conditioning, cable tv, and a private bath.  The Hollanda Montri guesthouse turned out to be an oasis away from the business of the inner city. 

We met with one of the uber nice girls that worked there and tried to plan out our three nights in Thailand’s cutural hub.  We booked a Thai cooking class for the next day.  There is a place that you can get up close and personal with tigers here, but she said that it was too late to go there, instead we opted to make our way into the city to find an ATM and grab a bite to eat.  The walk was much further than it looked on the map, so we just chose a small place along the way.  The food turned out to be terrific and only cost us $2.80 for lunch.  At lunch, we decided that we really wanted to see the tigers and the we must go today.  We made our way back to the guesthouse, not before being chased by a stray psycho dog, to try and go to the tiger kingdom.  The girl at the desk must have made a call to the place while we were out, because now she said they were open until 7PM.  She arranged a tuk tuk (a motorcycle with three wheels with a bench in the back) to pick us up.  It was already 4:30 in the afternoon when we left for the Tiger Kingdom, but we made it there by 5.  Upon entering, you are greeted by a desk of people and banners showing your options for your visit.  At the time, they had several encounters available.  One was with new born tigers, another with 3-4 month olds, 5-7 month olds, and also with full grown tigers.  It was a no brainer, Casey and I chose to do all of them.  The price was pretty steep, costing us around $35 each.  However, we figured this was the chance of a lifetime and would cost 10X as much back home.  You are walked to a room with glass walls first.  Once you take off your shoes and wash your hands, you can enter the room with the new born tiger cubs.  At the time, the cubs were only a few weeks old, no more than a month still retaining their blue eyes.  They were very sleepy and slept most of the time we were there.  Sometimes they would get up to find a new place to cuddle.  It was very cool to pet baby tigers. 

     Next, we were taken to the 5-7 month old tigers who looked huge compared to the babies we were just petting.  They were very active, one had a coconut that it was dragging around while the other 2 kept trying to pounce on it.  The trainers in the cage were playing with them using a bunch of leaves on the end of a long bamboo stick.  It looked just like a giant cat toy.  He would move it back and forth while the tigers would watch each movement of it and pounce at the right moment, many times splashing through the pool of water in the enclosure.  When the tigers decided to take a break now and again, we could walk up to them and give them a pet.  That usually didn’t last long, as one of the other ones would come barreling over to pounce on the one that was resting.  After the 5-7 month olds it was time to visit the big boys (actually 2 girls and one boy).  One was named “pancake” another “mule” and the third was something in Thai that we cannot remember.  They were very active as well, running past us in the cage chasing one another.  In the cage with them, you really got a feel for truely how big and powerful these animals are.  Between all the playtime, we had plenty of time to pet them.  Pancake was perched on the log, five feet off the ground with her chew toy for a while.  Seizing the opportunity, we pet her a ton.  While we were petting her, she dropped her toy on the ground and just looked at it as a dog would, waiting for someone to pick it up and give it back.  There were two more tigers in smaller enclosures inside the big enclosure playing.  One of the tigers in the large enclosure laid down next to the two that were playing in the small cage.  Casey thought it was a good idea to pet it while it was calm.  Little did she know that she was being stalked.  Out of nowhere one of the tigers pounced at her from inside the smaller cage up against the fence, scaring the daylights out of Casey.  Since it was near closing time and there were no guests, they left us in the cage for much longer than the allotted 15 minutes.  Our last tigers of the day were the 3-5 month olds.  These were probably the most rambunctious that we visited.  While we were waiting for someone to take us into the cage, we watched them running around growling at each other, throwing each other around.  When we were in the cage, it was no different.  They were super playful, running after each other.  There was a total of five, so it was difficult keeping dibs on all of them.  At one point when Casey was petting one, another on came up from behind and batted her on the butt with its paw.  The sun was fading away by now, and the lighting in the cage wasn’t very bright so our photos with these guys are limited.  Once time was up, we ran to the gift shop to by a couple of post cards before climbing back into the tuk tuk.  It was such an amazing experience there, to feel the tiger’s side when it growls, to realize how massive and strong they are, to play with baby cubs was simply fantastic.  Once back at the hotel, we grabbed dinner in the lobby next to the Ping river and watched laterns float slowly down the river before ending this amazing day.

 
   The next morning we awoke to the sounds of a roosters crow early in the morning.  We would be taking a Thai cooking class at the Thai Cookery School all day long.  Soon enough our Songthawe (a pickup truck with two benches in the back to sit on) was at the guesthouse to pick us up.  Once at the school, we were given a recipe booklet and waited for the rest of the students to show up.  Once everyone was present they gave us two options, either learn about the items used in Thai cooking in the classroom or thay could take us to  local market and teach us there.  The classroom seemed as though it was going to be boring, so we ventured off to the market while about half of the students stayed behind.  Once at the market, it was an overload to the senses.  There were colors of all sorts of fruits, veggies, and handicrafts, there was the smell of people cooking up fish and chicken, the sounds of people speaking Thai and scooters zipping past filled the air.  Our teacher, Baloo, showed us a ton of different items that we would be using today and also a few others.  This included three types of eggplant, green onions, lime, a few types of basil, ginger, fish sauce, coconut milk, and a ton more.  After she presented all of this to us, we had ten minutes to wander around the markets.  We saw some very interesting items; there were buckets of ground fish fermenting in the open air, a tub of live fish that were being scooped out to be fileted, whole dead chickens, and plenty of other mystery items that may be better left unknown.  Upon arriving back to the classroom, we were each given an apron and our own mini cooking station.  It felt oddly like I was back in Home Economics once again.  We made four dishes before our lunch which included Thai hot and sour prawn soup, Thai style fish cakes, Green curry with chicken, Pad Thai and after lunch we made water chestnuts with sugar syrup and coconut milk and lastly, Minced chicken salad. By the end of class we were so stuffed with Thai food we didn’t think we would ever be able to eat it again. The rest of the night was spent back at the guesthouse relaxing and eating dinner.

     On Sunday morning we decided that we should do some sightseeing in Chiang Mai.  We stopped at a bunch of different temples, which were very intricate and amazing.  After seeing the temples,  our legs were getting tired so we decided to stop by the Women’s Prison.  We read that you can get thai massages there.  The money that the inmates receive gets saved for when they are released.  We had to wait about 30 minutes, so we walked around town for some more.  Upon returning, we had our feet washed and then we changed into the provided linen shirts and pants.  Once we were all changed, we were given a cup of tea to relax.  Then the pain began.  The cute little thai women were twisting, pulling, and pummeling us into relaxation.  It was painful at times, but in the end it did feel very good.  Not to mention it was also a steal at $7 for an hour.  Once out of the prison, we made our way around the city to explore a bit more but we were soon frustrated by the touts.  There were tons of people that were trying to get us to go to the exhibition, where they would get a commission off of us buying things, we declined all the offers and began saying that we already went, giving the highlights we heard from the previous people.  We had a late lunch and then walked around the Sunday markets.  A whole main street was closed down so that the vendors could sell their merchandise which included anything from food to designer rip offs to paintings to anything else you could possibly want or need.  We then headed back to eat some dinner and bed to get some rest before our early flight the next day.  It was an incredible weekend, and a great introduction to Thailand.  Playing with tigers, learning to cook Thai, and getting a massage from an inmate at the woman’s prison are some memories that will stick with us for a long time.  Now it is off to some beaches in the south.

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