Tiger Time in Chiang Mai, Yes!

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My favorite city so far!

I’m happy to report that I made it to Chang Mai, and boy am I glad I’m here! I’ve been a busy beaver, er monkey, the past few days, and it’s been the most fun I’ve had so far! There are more than 300 temples here, so the first day we went exploring. I saw a bunch of Buddhas! At one place, Nate and Jessie rang some prayer bells and even hit a gong. I stood behind it when Nate hit it…BOOONGGGGG. Every fur on my body stood straight up! I wasn’t strong enough to lift up the mallet and hit the gong, but I got to ring one of the bells. I jumped up and hung onto the rope tight as I moved it side to side. Ding, Ding, Ding. One thing I think we could live without is all of the rats running around. Yuk!!!

The next day I woke up really excited, because it was Tiger Kingdom day! Yay! We’ve all been looking forward to this for a long time. We went in by the baby tigers first. They were so awesome! The one we played with was a boy, and his name was Hugo. He loved to play with his coconut! Outside one of the cages, Jessie took a picture of me close to the fence. One of the tigers got really close to the fence to smell me. I know for a fact that tigers will eat monkeys, but I’m not on the menu buddy! Nate and Jessie also went into the big tigers’ cage. Kids aren’t allowed to go in this one because the tigers will think they are food. You could actually see some of the tigers slowly stalking the kids that were walking close to the cage, ready to pounce, so I didn’t go in this one. Nate and Jessie LOVED the big tigers! The one that they got to pet and lay on was a big male name is Jackie Chan. Can you believe they named a tiger Jackie Chan? I doubt the tiger knows kung fu, unless he’s the tiger from the movie Kung Fu Panda! Haha! What a great day we had! Nate was so happy he couldn’t stop smiling all the way back to our guesthouse.

This past week, and this weekend, was a very special time for a lot of people because it was Chinese New Year. There were lots of kids performing on stages when we went to Chinatown. They were dressed up in really neat costumes with their hair done up and excited to do their dance. We even saw some guys that were doing some martial arts on stage. They were really fast! We also saw all kinds of different food when we were there, including a whole cooked pig, lots of fish, more bugs, and some octopus tentacles! Guess what… Nate did it again! He ate some kind of larva and a cricket! I already tried a grasshopper in Bangkok and THAT was GROSS. I can’t imagine eating a larva! Every time I think of it I get the goose bumps! Not all of the food is like this, though. We’ve had some really tasty dinners with lots of noodles and vegetables. Jessie took a cooking class to learn how to make some of the different Thai food while Nate got a massage and did some laundry again.

We’ve been having SO much fun in Chiang Mai, but we’re all super excited for Monday. Guess what we’re doing? We’re spending the whole day with elephants as their trainers! We get to take care of them for a day by feeding them, petting and riding them to the river, and giving them a bath. We’ll be sure to take some pictures for all of you. Do a lot of you kids like elephants, too? I think it’s going to be great! Enjoy the pictures!

Wylie

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