Before we arrived in Thailand, we planned on taking an elephant safari through the Thai jungles. We quickly found out that an elephant safari would destroy our budget. Therefore, we opted for the next best thing: Tiger Kingdom.
The Chiang Mai Tiger Kingdom was located about 40 miles outside the town. We could have hired a tuk-tuk to take us there; or, we could rent scooters for a quarter of the price and drive ourselves there. Since we had become quite proficient in the art of Asian scooting, we decided on the scooters. Scooting in Chiang Mai was by far the easiest of all places we have scooted. The roads were straight and had a dedicated scooter lane. Plus, navigating around the city was easy because the moat provided a good reference point.
Our Scooters
Notice, our entry price included Insurance
We got to the Tiger Kingdom and it was not what we expected. We thought it was going to be a tiger or two in some guy's back yard. However, it was actually a large compound with 30 tigers and was very well organized. The pricing was based on what size tiger you wanted. They had newborns, and tigers arranged by size, featuring small, medium, large, and extra-large tigers. We selected the newborns, medium, and extra-large tigers. We were given 10-15 minutes inside the cage with the tigers. We were not allowed to touch their heads or paws, but otherwise we could lay on them or pet them. The tigers were very sleepy, so we thought they were drugged. The handlers assured us that they did not drug the tigers. To get the tigers active, the handlers used various methods such as shaking a ball attached to a stick in their faces, or they would hit the tigers in the head with a bamboo stick. We thought great, piss them off so they can attack us! We actually felt pretty safe after the first minute or so. Below are pictures with various captions of us playing with the tigers.
Newborns
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The only Lion on the Compound
Click the Video Above to watch the Tiger Play
Large Tiger
Large Tiger getting hit with a bamboo pole to wake him up
Medium Tiger
Large Tiger
Medium Tiger
Danae and I with Two Medium Tigers
Me and the 12 Year old Connect 4 Prodigy
Later that night, after diner, we decided to have a couple of drinks near our hotel. There was a cluster of bars nearby so we went there. When we got there, one of the first bars we came to had Connect 4 and Jinga set-up, so we decided to go there. During our intense connect 4 match, a 12 year old boy came to our table. He was selling flowers. But, upon seeing us playing connect 4, he challenged us to a match. He said that if he beat us, we had to give him 20 Baht ($0.67). We agreed. I beat him the first game, but he beat me badly the next three. Apparently he was hustling me. Danae made fun of me and decided to take on the Connect 4 prodigy. The kid stomped her. After the kid left, Danae and I started playing jinga. Just as our game started, a 12 year old girl came by and offered to play us. The novelty of playing a classic American game with a kid in a bar was lost at this point, but the girl would not go away. We played her anyways.
Danae and the 12 Year Old Connect 4 Prodigy
Danae playing Jinga with the 12 year old girl
The cluster of bars were centered around a boxing ring. (See video below). It was free to watch the matches. Thai boxing was interesting because it was kickboxing. Obviously self-explanatory, but the boxers could use their knees and feet in addition to their fists. Quick aside, after the matches, the boxers walked around with a box for tips. I felt bad for the loser because that must have been embarrassing to lose a match, then ask for tips. I still didn't tip him though because who wants to tip a loser. HA
Click to watch a video
Click to Watch a Vido
We went to one of the bars closest to the boxing ring and had a seat. After we ordered our beers, we quickly realized that it was a Ladyboy bar. We were tipped off by the name of the bar, "Luna's Ladybody Bar." We thought it would be entertaining, plus we had great seats by the ring, so we stuck around for a while. We even met some Australian guy there who said that he was there by "coincidence." The bar was pretty entertaining. One of the workers, Damni, even hung out with us for a while. We learned that she started her transformation by taking estrogen pills and had implants. But she actually went the entire distance, and had gender reconstruction surgery. Later in the evening, all the Ladyboys took their tops off and started dancing around the bar. We thought this was a good time to leave. The Austrailan guy said he was going to "finish his beer" then leave. Haha.
Danae in front of the Ladyboy Bar
View of the Boxing Ring from the Ladyboy Bar
Danae, Clayton, Damni, and the Australian Guy
Danae entertained by the Ladyboys
The Australian Guy with a Topless Ladyboy with a Snake
We went to our final bar and hung out with 7 "real" Thai girls. Danae befriended them by buying them all a round of drinks. She only did this so she could ring the bell at the bar. The girls were very appreciative, and invited us to play a bar room game with them. Basically, you roll dice and based on how the dice land, you drink. If a person rolls a nine, that person must drink. If the person rolls pairs, they get to pick who drinks. The girls were great and we had a lot of fun.
We arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand, early in the morning. CM is the third largest city in Thailand and is nestled in between the mountains of the northern part of the country. One of the neat aspects of this city is that the interior of it is surrounded by a man made moat. There are remnants of fortified walls surrounding parts of the moat. Below is a picture of the moat and fortified wall in the back left.
Our hotel, Le Meridien, was pretty good. It's was about par for the course in terms of all our hotel stays in Asia. Below are pictures and a video (below, click play on the picture of Clayton) of our room/hotel.
Hotel From Outside
We basically only did three things our first day in CM: (1) swim in our hotel pool; (2) take a Thai cooking class; and (3) go to the CM Night Bazaar.
The pool was nice, but there was nothing spectacular about it. Below are some pictures.
Our Swimming Pool on the 7th Floor
Tuk-Tuk Truck
The Thai cooking class was awesome! They picked us up in a tuk-tuk truck from our hotel and drove us to the class. The class lasted about five hours. It was taught by a Thai teacher, whose name was too difficult to pronounce. In Thai, you can have the same word mean numerous different things, the only distinguishing feature being the pitch used. Her name was one of those examples. If her name was pronounced with the wrong pitch, it meant death. Anyways, she told us to call her "Rabbit." Danae said, "like a bunny." She said yea, so we ended up calling her "Bunny." She called Danae "Sexy Girl" and me "Sexy Boy." There were also 5 other people in our class. The class was taught in English, even though the remaining people were not from countries that spoke English. One was from Hong Kong, one from Holland, and 3 from Germany.
Rabbit AKA "Bunny"
Our Classmates at our Food Preparation Table
Our Thai class started with a walk to the local outdoor market. Bunny went through all the ingredients we would be using to make our Thai dishes. We purchased our ingredients, and went back to our outdoor kitchen. Below are some photos from the market.
Various Types of Rice we learned about
Thai Chili Peppers
Bunny Explaining the different types of Basil and garlic used in Thailand
We got to pick our appitizers, entrees, and desserts. I picked hot & sour prawn soup, Thai style fried noodles (AKA Pad Thai) with chicken, green curry with chicken, and sticky rice pudding (basically rice with coconut milk) with mangoes. Danae opted (for the complete opposite so we could sample everything) for spring rolls, stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts, and red curry with chicken. Below are pictures and captions of the stuff we made throughout our class.
Our Name tags with our names in Thai
Our Stoves. A lot of Thai kitchens are outside because of the smell of the food
Bunny showing us how to make our Curry Paste
Danae mashing the ingredients to make Red Curry Paste
Danae mashing the ingredients to make Green Curry Paste
Green and Red Curry Pastes - Mix it with fish sauce and oil to with chicken and veggies to make Soup that goes over rice
Plate on Left made Pad Thai and Right made Hot & Sour Prawn Soup
Danae's Ingredients to make Stir-Fried Chicken and Cashew
Me Making Pad Thai
Danae making Spring Rolls with Bunny
Spring Rolls
Spring Rolls
Sticky Rice and Mangoes
Finished Spring Rolls
Sticky Rice and Mangoes
Pad Thai and Hot and Sour Prawn Soup
Danae's finished Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashew Nuts
Finished Green Curry and Chicken
Finished Red Curry and Chicken
We also went to a Night Bazaar, which is basically a night market so we could buy junk: tee-shirts, knock-off Western clothing and CDs, etc. The best part was we had dinner for $7 dinner, which was two entrees, one appetizers, and a couple of drinks!
Before we arrived in Thailand, we planned on taking an elephant safari through the Thai jungles. We quickly found out that an elephant safari would destroy our budget. Therefore, we opted for the next best thing: Tiger Kingdom. 
We got to the Tiger Kingdom and it was not what we expected. We thought it was going to be a tiger or two in some guy's back yard. However, it was actually a large compound with 30 tigers and was very well organized. The pricing was based on what size tiger you wanted. They had newborns, and tigers arranged by size, featuring small, medium, large, and extra-large tigers. We selected the newborns, medium, and extra-large tigers. We were given 10-15 minutes inside the cage with the tigers. We were not allowed to touch their heads or paws, but otherwise we could lay on them or pet them. The tigers were very sleepy, so we thought they were drugged. The handlers assured us that they did not drug the tigers. To get the tigers active, the handlers used various methods such as shaking a ball attached to a stick in their faces, or they would hit the tigers in the head with a bamboo stick. We thought great, piss them off so they can attack us! We actually felt pretty safe after the first minute or so. Below are pictures with various captions of us playing with the tigers.
