Tigers and more...

Our last stop in Thailand was Chiang Mai. It is a reasonably large city surrounding an inner "old city" of one square mile which is encircled by a moat and remnants of an old wall. Getting around was easy - either walking or by the ever-present "tuk tuk." And while the traffic was haphazard and relentless (no chance to cross ever), we did get out the bikes for a few days of riding. One day we took them in a taxi up into the mountains outside town to the Doi Suthep temple to enjoy the mostly downhill (brake melting) bike ride back.

On the way back to town, we passed the public zoo and thought it might be interesting to see inside. While not up to the high San Diego standards, it was quite nice, and most of the animals had spacious enclosures. There were a few differences however: In many places, it was possible to pay a small fee to feed the animals. I took advantage of this opportunity to feed a jaguar. There were two in the large enclosure, and when they saw me talking to the guy who sells the meat on a stick, they made their way right over. Once I picked up the stick, they got fierce with each other growling and swatting to jockey for position. Not wanting them to fight, I quickly shoved the pound of droopy raw meat at the smaller one, who grabbed it and carried it off to eat. The other difference was just how active the animals were - for some reason they all seemed to be moving about unlike American zoos where they just lie around, sometimes hidden from view.

Another day we rode around the Mae Sa valley, where there is a great concentration of interesting "attractions" along the rural road: Tiger sanctuary, snake wrangling, orchid and butterfly farms, monkey "shows," and even the Four Seasons Resort, complete with beautifully landscaped (but artificial) rice field terraces. Our first stop was "Tiger Kingdom." This breeding facility actually lets you get inside the enclosure with the tigers. We had twenty minutes inside with four 3-month olds, where we pet, played with, and snuggled actual tigers - I won't forget that soon. Here's a few seconds of video we took. Eileen and I are both allergic to cats, but it was only as we exited the enclosure that we realized we were sniffling and sneezing - allergic to tigers too!

From there, we biked about a mile down the road to find a monkey show, where we got to see how working monkeys have been trained to retrieve coconuts from high in the palm trees. We also got to see other tricks like riding a tricycle and shooting a basketball (a surprisingly good free throw). It was here that we debated the possibility of animal exploitation - where is the line between educational zoo and freak show? I suppose it might have to do with how the animals are treated and where they come from. We were a bit uncomfortable with the monkey show and wouldn't recommend it for that reason.

Perhaps my compassion for snakes is smaller, but I wasn't so worried about their well being: We thoroughly enjoyed watching the handlers manipulate cobras and pythons at the snake show. Signs proclaimed that they do not take responsibility for any danger, and they often let the vipers and cobras escape from the ring just a bit into the stands before grabbing their tails to pull them back - scared me enough to climb up out of my front row seat more than once!

The food in northern Thailand is not as good as the southern dishes we are familiar with in America: coconut milk and spicy curries. So we were delighted to find a good burrito restaurant in Chiang Mai run by an ex-patriot from New Orleans. And there was a 7/11 mini-mart on virtually every block. In fact, this has been a frequent sight here in Thailand - even the smallest towns have one. I had no idea how global they were - all over Singapore and Manila too. Another oddity here is that Diet Coke costs more than Coke for some reason (twice as much in some cases)?

Okay, here's the slideshow of our best photos from all of Thailand (press F11 once it loads for fullscreen view, at least in Firefox).