Crouching Tiger hidden trainers

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We'd set the alarm for 9am, but pressed snooze, and then totally reset it until 11am- we were still quite tired! I'm glad we didn't end up going to the reggae bar, as fun as it sounded, as they didn't get in until 4am. I do wish we had of got out of bed and had a massage or done something more productive, but when you gotta sleep you gotta sleep.
We met the others at 12pm and got on the bus to the Tiger Park. Now I wasn't too sure if I liked the idea of this, as I'd heard that sometimes the tigers are drugged to make them dozy. boom assured us that it was one of the better parks, the other being Tiger Temple in Kanchanaburi, which apparently wasn't as nice as this place.
We had a buffet lunch here, and I ate loads (as usual) the pork curry and rice was lovely, and after the cookery class I seem to have a better appreciation for Thai food. Where the tigers were concerned, you paid your entry fee according to which enclosure you wanted to go in. Sam opted for the babies which were a minimum of 3 months old. They were so cute and tiny, like your normal household cats playing rough and tumble, and Sam got some good pictures whilst she was in there. I decided to go in with the big ones, and they were quite a size. I felt a bit hesitant having my photo taken, as on the flight over, I'd watched a documentary about a bear that was trained and used in Hollywood films, that turned on a man one day out of the blue, ripped his face off, pierced his jugular and killed the poor bugger- this was all I could think of as I crouched down by the big cat and feigned a cheesy grin for the camera. Apparently these tigers were hand reared from birth, and the only act of discipline used on them is a nose tap- like you would with your pet dog I suppose- I was hoping that would be all, should anything go wrong.....
Luckily we all made it out alive and set off to our next destination

Temple

As we got there it started to pour with rain, so for the first, but probably not the last time on this trip, out came the pac a mac. We made our way up some 300 steps to the temple, and removed our shoes to enter. The wet rain on the tiles was so cooling on my feet, but made the floor a little bit slippy. I was by now getting used to the smell of incense, and dare I say actually liking it. I think this may be due to the fact that when I've smelt it in the past it has been indoors where it can be a bit overpowering. Out here in the air in the temple on the top of a hill, it was actually quite nice. Boom told us it was good luck if you walked around the Pagoda in a clockwise motion 3 times. At the same time when you say your prayers or make your wishes, the incense is said to take them up to heaven. I thought this was quite nice, and made some wishes for family and friends as I walked around barefoot in the rain wearing my pac a mac- I probably looked like An idiot abroad, but hey what's the saying? when in Rome....
There were quite a few monks praying here, and the were many statues of Buddha. Boom told us about some that represented days of the week, and it was important to know which day you were born on in relation to this. Sam and I it seems are full of woe if the saying has any truth in it. 
We got halfway back down the steps, when Hayley asked us if we'd seen the view. We had forgotten about this, so did a 180 back up the steps trying not to slip as we went. I'm glad we did though as even though it was a bit cloudy, there was a lovely view over Chaing Mai, and we got some great photos. At the bottom if the steps was a little boy dressed in the typical Thai outfit who was singing. Sam went over to him and he threw his arms around her and gave h a kiss on the cheek. He was so cute, but almost immediately held his hand out for money. He can't have been more than 3 years old.
I went to the toilet, and had the privilege of paying 3 Baht to squat in the Japanese style toilet with no loo roll or flush- just a bucket and a pan to pour water down after you'd finished. I learned these were toilets I'd have to get used to over the next few days.
Back on the bus, and some of us got dropped off at the night market and others back to the hotel. We wandered around fir ages trying to fing a pair of trainers or walking boots to take on the trek with us. Eventually we found some cheap crappy things that we decided to make do with, and ended up paying 300baht for them. I was reluctant to pay much more seeing as everything was fake or knock off, and they'd only end up getting trashed. As Sam was sat trying hers on, i fely something tickle my foot and looked down to see a massive cockroach crawling over it. How I didn't scream is beyond me, but it made me shudder- yuk! We didn't have time for a massage as we'd spent so long looking around the market, nor did we have time for a meal ( everyone works on Thai time over here- you could be waiting ages) so I hate to say it, but we ended up in burger king. Oh well, we needed to eat quickly, so when needs must. I bought some wooden massage sticks that are used for acupressure points on your feet (stand by to be my guinea pig with these when I get home!) and a lovely oriental dress for Isabelle. Again- everything is so cheap out here, I really wish I had more room in my bag to bring stuff back. We met Anna and Tamara the 2 Canadians, and shared a tuktuk back to the hotel. We did a bit of hand washing, and repacked our bags once again, and had an early ish night as Tomorrow we had an early start as we were heading further north still.

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