Chiang Mai Chill Out

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Tiger Kingdom

After a very much needed sleep in we ventured onto the 4th floor for an merican Breakfast (So they call it) as we have been only going as far as the Exec lounge for a continental breakfast. We went down to the foyer out the front doors said good morning to our friendly Thai Doorman and set off to find a Tuk Tuk driver to take us to the Tiger Kingdom, much the same as the Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi we had heard conflicting reports from various travel advice websites and the like about animal abuse and the tigers being drugged etc. After many years as an animal trainer I am experienced enough to know the difference between natural, learned and altered behaviours so we decided to go along and make our own decisions on what was happening within the park.

After about an hours drive we reached the Tiger Kingdom in a town outside Chiang Mai called Mae Rim, happy that we had chosen to go by a more comfortable car rather than the standard Tuk-tuk. We were presented with a series of computer monitors that outlined the different options available all of which included insurance and signing your life away lol.

We chose to do the whole package with the addition of a photo package at both the smallest and largest Tigers, choosing to take our own photos at the other enclosures. You are taken to each area in turn and are given 15mins per area to interact with the tigers and have photos taken if you have chosen this option or take your own photos if not (the keepers will generally offer to take a few photos for you and do a pretty good job). All this takes place under the watchful eyes of the keepers in order to keep both visitor and tiger safe. The Tigers are bought up around Humans and have no fear of them so feel very comfortable around us and the Keepers have a very special bond with them and many interesting storys to tell if you are prepared to listen and have named most of the animals after movie stars or musicians such as Johnny Depp the Lion, Jennifer lopez and Sophia Loren two 7 Month old sisters, Jackie Chan although we thought this name was more appropriate for the older male that kicked paul in the arm lol.


After spending several hours around the park looking at the interactions of the Keepers and staff with all the other animals, we decided to have some lunch overlooking the largest tiger enclosure where we had been only an hour or so earlier and observe all the other people and the keepers as the heat of the day set in. We had arrived in the early part of the morning about an hour after the park opened so were able to view the tigers over the space of a few hours, I can honestly say from what we have seen we can not understand why people think these animals are drugged or mistreated, yes ok in an ideal situation they would be given much larger natural habitats but what they have is clean well maintained and they are certainly well fed. As for being drugged, well have a look at the photos. Animals that are drugged do not jump, run around swim or do any other behaviours that come naturally. The behaviours we observed during our time there were completely natural for any kind of animal that is used to being around people and anyone who has spent enough time around dogs or cats know's that they have periods of activity followed by periods of rest especially when it is the hottest part of the day.

After we stuffed our faces with some awesome Thai food (Bill came to 700Baht/$19Aus) we rolled out of the park and into our waiting Taxi and back to our hotel to cool off and rest before heading out for dinner and a massage.
We decided to try the River Restaurant on the Mae Ping River as recommended by Groovy Map, so off again to find a Tuk Tuk and try to barter a better price which we got him to take us for 60Baht/$2Aus. So off we set to eat again. The atmosphere there was lovely and still pretty quiet so we sat back and enjoyed the live music and the view and filled the spaces we had left after lunch and headed back to the hotel to digest some food before taking our nightly ritual of a foot massage for me and Thai massage for Paul.

Got back to the room all relaxed and ready for bed to catch some much needed Zzzzzz's for our next planned trip tomorrow.

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Comments

[beryl]

love the tigers
So glad you had a nice morning with the tigers and got to experience such memorable moments. Prices for food and transport always good beats europe prices anytime.

[Monica]

Great photos - you both look so relaxed!