Cuddling with Tigers in Chiang Mai

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So, here we are. The last stop on our Asian voyage before we head home (three weeks away!). Thanks to our Lonely Planet Guide, we actually discovered that we are sitting in the southernmost arm of the Himalayas - who knew? After an overnight train ride, we are in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-biggest city (150,000 people), way up in the northern end of the country. It's our friend Kate's favorite city, and it's not hard to see why. It's picturesque. It's quiet, but there's still plenty to do. The food is incredible and dirt cheap. Want to study Thai massage? Kickboxing? Thai cooking? Rock climbing? Elephant trekking? White water rafting? Play with tigers? It's all right here, in one place. What a great town.

So we've been here for nine days now, and it's just flying by. Kate and Andreas came up from Bangkok with us for the weekend, and we checked into the gorgeous little Tawan Guesthouse - feels more like a tiny Hawaiian bungalow than a hotel in the center of a bustling city. Fountains, gardens, relaxing music, big trees, you get the picture. It's adorable. And for ten dollars a night, it can't be beat. Even our bathroom is decorated in pretty river stones and looks like a grotto. Not a bad place to hang your hat for three weeks!

We toured a temple way up at the top of a hill outside the city (they would call it a mountain, but after a year in NZ, I'm inclined to call it a "hill" instead). There I was ambushed by a flock of Chinese tourists who wanted their photo with me (stupid blond hair). In all fairness, I don't know for sure if they were Chinese, but they seem to be the ones that go crazy when they see a blonde, so I'm making an educated guess. There I stood at the bottom of the dragon staircase, posing for photos with a bunch of giggly women who barely came up to my shoulder. I've decided that my next trip is going to be to Norway, where everyone is tall and blond. Maybe I'll just blend seamlessly into the background...

Anyway, we're back in town eating dinner that night, and a large movement outside the window catches our eye. A horse going by? Oh, no. We look up and it is, in fact, an elephant lumbering by down the street (led of course, by a mahout, but still...an elephant. Strolling down the sidewalk with cars, motorbikes, and tuk-tuks. It was kind of surreal). Oh, the food in this town! Pad Thai? Mexican? Italian? Salads? You want it, you got it, and it's all soooooooooo good. You could eat yourself to death.

Every Sunday night, there's an enormous Night Market that takes over about four city blocks. Aside from the amazing, cheap food (did I mention the food yet?), you can shop to your hearts' content on jewelry, clothes, artwork, housewares, anything you can think of. And it's not just cheap junk they throw out to the tourists - it's really nice stuff. I'm tempted to throw away my ratty backpacking clothes and buy a whole new wardrobe to bring home. (As if anything would actually fit me. Unless you're a size negative 2, forget about it. You're on the wrong continent).

Monday morning dawned, well...bright and early, as most mornings do, I suppose (wouldn't know, I try to avoid mornings whenever possible). But out of bed I bounded, at the terrible hour of 7:30, to catch my "bus" (read: pick-up truck bed converted to two narrow benches with barely enough room for your head under the topper) out to TMC Massage School. There I meet my five classmates, from (in no particular order) Israel, Germany, New Caledonia, South Korea, and Japan. (And yes, the classes are taught in English - er, kind of. As much English as the sweet little massage instructors can manage). I am the only professional massage therapist in the class, the others are taking it "just for fun." (HA!!!!!!! Have they experienced a Thai massage?) The great thing is, this particular school is accredited by all the massage associations back in the USA, so I can use all of my credits and training to do Thai massage when I'm stateside again. Yay!!

So we are thrust into some of the most intensive five days I've ever been through. In the first three days alone, we learned over 150 moves. If you're envisioning traditional oil massage with flowing strokes and kneading muscles, wipe your mind. Thai massage is not even a distant relative of ANYTHING you've encountered in the western world. You're on a cushy floor mat, being pushed and pulled into all sorts of yoga-type positions, twisted into a pretzel, and then having various (and often times painful) pressure points on your body jabbed with thumbs, elbows, knees, and even feet by your therapist. Why, you may ask, would a person willingly subject themselves to this? And why, you are undoubtedly wondering, would someone actually want to learn how to do this to other people? (Of course, anyone who's received a massage from me knows I'm something of a sadist - I think to be a massage therapist, you kind of HAVE to be - but that's besides the point).

I'm not an expert on eastern styles of bodywork, so I'm not going to pretend to be one. All I can say is that after two hours of being stretched and pressed to a pulp, you stand up feeling looser, lighter, more energetic, and more flexible than you've ever been in your life. It seriously takes YEARS off you, and unlike a regular Swedish massage, you feel the effects of it for days, even weeks afterward. Whereas western styles of massage focus primarily on muscles (you have an aching knee? Let's massage your knee), eastern bodywork, such as Thai massage, focuses on the body as a whole, with the intention of stimulating energy flow throughout the body (you have an aching knee? We're going to work on your entire body, including your knee, to bring everything back into balance). I don't know how it works. But it does. I can't say that I prefer it over western styles of massage, or that one is "better" than the other - they're two very different ball games. And there is plenty of room in the health community for both approaches, so I'm excited to combine all of these new ideas and maneuvers with what I've already learned from previous experience. The first week flew by, and I have two more to go, learning more stretches and some of their traditional medical techniques for treating various ailments. It's going to be very cool indeed!!

So you're looking at all of these photos of tigers and wondering, "When are we going to hear about the tigers?" Now! To celebrate me surviving my first week of massage school (seriously - too much of a good thing. I came home on Wednesday and announced I didn't want to be touched ever again. And I had another twelve days still to go. Ugh.), we hopped in a tuk-tuk and headed out to Tiger Kingdom. And what exactly is Tiger Kingdom? It is a wonderful land where you can step into the cage with tigers from 8 weeks old up to 2 years, take pictures with them, lay on them, pet them, rub their bellies, and basically treat them like 500-pound house cats. We'd read a lot of bad reviews online, claiming that the tigers were drugged and abused and the like, but I can safely assure you that these animals are well-fed, alert, content, and most definitely NOT abused or drugged. They let them out to play at night, when they're most active, and then they sleep for their standard 16 hours a day while loads of starry-eyed tourists (like us) come and touch them. They're bred, born, and raised there, so they're as accustomed to human touch as your average dog or cat.

That being said, you of course still treat them with the respect that they rightfully deserve. Their trainers stay with you the entire time and show you where and how to touch them. And yes, somewhere in the back of your mind, you're thinking, "Gee, one swipe of the paw, and I'd be dead." But you don't dwell on it. In fact, you're not afraid AT ALL, even when you're sitting beside an animal that weighs four times more than you do and has the largest teeth you've ever seen. It was seriously like being with oversized teddy bears. They're incredibly docile during the day, and they're so used to human contact, they barely flick an ear in your direction. (The other thing that's running through your mind is: LAWSUIT. Can you imagine such a place in the states, where you can just waltz into a cage with a tiger and lay all over it? HA!)

So we purchased admission into all four cages (and I know you're wondering, since if something like this did exist back home, it would probably cost millions - fifteen minutes in each of the four cages cost us about $40). In we went to the "small" cage first (seven months old), as the "smallest" (8 weeks) had about a 2-hour queue. The seven-month olds (the pictures you're looking at now) are roughly the size of a large dog - think of a big German shepherd or Labrador and you're on the right track. So gentle! Still a little playful and precocious - one of them took a few playful swipes at Jeremy - but your heart just melts when you see these amazing creatures and they allow you to enter their world for a brief moment. It's an incredibly humbling experience. On we moved to the "medium" cage (13 months), where we met Jennifer and Sofia and got to give them side-by-side belly rubs (such hams, those two! Dying for affection. Never mind that they're 300 pounds.) Onto the "big cat" cage with Leonardo and Edward (21 months - and no, a tiger is not full-grown until the age of FIVE, so these boys have a long way to go still). They were snoozing away, except for an interesting moment when we were in the corner with Edward and two others came lumbering over, and suddenly we (and the trainer) are surrounded by three 500-pound cats (who are totally oblivious to our existence, I swear). It was like being in a dream, because nowhere in this world can you be surrounded by free-ranging tigers and feel so peaceful and happy. Except, of course, for Tiger Kingdom. It is simply a must-do for ANYONE coming to Chiang Mai. Our final stop was to the baby cage, where we cuddled with little Lulu, who was tuckered out from her long day of playing (it was late afternoon at this point). Too precious! Barely larger than your average house cat. We wanted to take her home. (Think she'd clear US Immigration? Hmmmm...)

So, that's where we're at. Tonight we're hitting up the Night Market again and tomorrow I begin my second week of Thai massage school. What has Jeremy been doing with his time while I'm at school all day? I should have him write a blog about his experiences with a two-day kickboxing workout, as I won't be able to tell it in nearly as hilarious of detail as he could. All I'll say is the poor guy could hardly move from Wednesday to Friday, so suffice to say...it was a good workout. Something about running up a mountainside for five miles and punching a bag 400 times and kicking his legs over his head 200 times each. Or something like that. Poor guy. Then I'd come home from class each day and want to practice all of my new massage moves on him. Poor guy. I think next week he's going to do something a little more tame. Like rock climbing, perhaps.

Next weekend is a huge annual festival in Chiang Mai, where they light big paper lanterns and release them into the sky, and fill the river with little floating candles. Should be very, very pretty. Kate is coming up from Bangkok for the weekend and she and I are going to attend a one-day "mahout" training camp, where we'll spend the day bathing, feeding, and riding elephants (bareback, on their necks, learning the commands to steer them). I am SO EXCITED, I can hardly wait to go play with elephants. It should be just as awesome as playing with tigers. If we never come home, I think it's safe to say you can find us right here, in Chiang Mai...

And, my friends, I will leave you with this riddle, as we've been wondering for weeks now...What does a monk wear under his orange robe? Hmmmmm...

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Comments

[Janet Lomas]

A glimpse of Paradise!
Love your pictures-----all of them----especially those at Tiger Kingdom. Gives us a glimpse of what it will be like in God's new system of things. What a special and unique experience you had with the tigers; one that we all are jealous of!!! Thanks for your blogs and seeing a part of the world that we may never get to. Food looks great too! So many things-----what to choose from? Anyway, enjoy the rest of your short time there along with your massage school. Lots to tell from this end, put will wait to talk in person and catch up. Love to you both!