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Published: September 29th 2008
Oh the long awaited Thailand.
We pushed our limits by taking the cheapest option of transportation, a local bus. In fact, a 15 hour ride to a transfer then another 4 hours to the destination. This bus is not up to any standards that would normally be required for safety. Neither were the driving habits of the the man behind the wheel. Weaving through on coming traffic at speeds a bus has no business going, slamming over potholes that were deep enough to cause the bus to bottom out on the dirt and gravel roads. Not to mention this bus has no air conditioning and when they have room the fill the isles with goods and produce. Your luggage goes on the top along side a few motorbikes and some spare tires and even more produce. They pack this sucker down. They make it as financially beneficial as they can, more stuff = more cash . I have learned a sure fire way to survive these type of journeys....once again my new found friend Valium. Pop a few at the start and sleep as long as you can.
Once i survived the bus from hell we got straight into
our search for a room...many places were full but Ryo's Aussie charm won the heart of the Thai employee and knocked the price down at a decent spot. We made our way to the night market for some food and drinks. Nothing big...after the bus we needed some serious R&R.
The next day was a slow start we wondered around trying to price out a few different tour packages around the sights of the city. None were worth the money so we decided that a motorbike rental and a goonie adventure would suffice. We rented motorbikes before but this is now a city and many other people/cars so it would get a little more interesting.
We made our way to a elephant camp that had tons of elephants that you can ride, feed, and watch play soccer. They line up for Penaty kicks and put another in goal as the keeper and blow the whistle to shoot. The best is the way they all have so much character. They flip there trunks around when they score as if they were celebrating like the pros. It was amazing! They put on a whole show of elephant tricks including painting,
massage, and playing the harmonica. Very impressive!
After a few hours of that we made our way to the Tiger Camp. We were now out of the city and it seemed like the best time to let Krista take a crack at driving a motorbike. She did well when she was alone. Then Jeff hopped on the back for the rest of the ride and as we pulled into the parking lot of the Tiger Camp they spilled. Nothing major...a scraped knee and a bruised ego. I'm glad it was at a slow speed because it could have been ugly. She is tough and she hangs with the boys so she rubbed some dirt on it and moved on.
With Krista bleeding we thought "hey lets go play with some tigers" seems smart right?! We decided that out of the many options of size you can play with we were going to go for the big guys. You can pick newborns, young, a little older, and then the oldest. Which is only about 1 year old...anything after that becomes too big to let people play with. We saw a 5 year old that was not fully grown and
it was about 3 times the size of the tigers you see in the pics. HUGE!
We get in to the cage with about 5 big tigers and your blood starts pumping. They are trained and they have many staff around to make sure you don't get hurt but it is still enough to make you almost wiz your pants when they look at you like they know they can take you don with out any effort. They were amazing. We got to lay with them and pet them. Once again i found myself thinking that what i have done in the last few months is what some dream to do in a lifetime. Incredible! I am truly grateful.
Off to Pai in a local bus...wish me luck!
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Pam
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Ellies & Tigers too!!
Ok now I am really jealous - the animals are amazing and you are so right when you say what you are doing is stuff that dreams are made of!! I swear when you get home we are going to publish your blogs and pics - they are so wonderful!!