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Sorry for being so lazy with writing the blogs (don't worry, I'm about to make up for it now)... we have been so busy since we got to Chiang Mai on the 31st July.
For starters we didn't manage to get our Chinese visa's, we rolled up at the embassy and then realised it was a Saturday and was closed (we have no sense of time since being out here, I don't think myself or Lee could actually tell you what day it is today). So instead we thought it would be funny if Lee got dreadlocks on the side of the road on Khao San. Which obviously was a stupid idea that seemed hilarious at the time, basically a lady matted hair extensions into lee's hair, it took about 2 or 3 hours! Then at 2:30 the next morning Lee woke me up say that his head was really hurting, so we decided to try and take them out, the lady who put them in said you can get them out by putting conditioner on them then they fall out... if only it was that simple. After 30mins of getting nowhere we decided to go back to sleep as we had to be at the airport at 5am to catch our flight to Chiang Mai. Once at our hotel in Chiang Mai we then spent about 5 to 6 hours taking them out. I think it was pretty painful for Lee. I have never realised how dirty dreadlocks made someone look before, I mean, I just wanted to give lee a good scrub!?
Anyway... we absolutely love Chiang Mai, the markets were fantastic and it was so much more calm than anywhere else we have been on this trip, You don't get shouted at for a 'cheap cheap' tuk tuk or to buy someone's clothes just because you looked for more than 3 seconds.
On the 1st August we went to Tiger Kingdom, which is basically an enclosure you can go in to get up and close with tigers. We went with a VERY open mind after I had read a few reviews online about people thinking the tigers were drugged, I knew I wasn't going to support that for one minute and was prepared to walk away if I had any doubt. As soon as we got there and walked up the stairs, you could see an enclosure right in front of you... almost immediately we saw two adult tigers play fighting in the water. Now, if they were drugged, well... it's obviously a totally different drug than I thought it would be, they seem very playful. Apparently tigers sleep on average for 15 to 18 hours a day and are at their most energetic in the morning (we got there at 10am), I also asked the keepers where the tigers had come from, apparently all the tigers were born there, hence why they are so confortable around humans and would rather sleep throughout the day than eat people!! We went in with the cubs first (they were about 5months old & very playful) at one point I had 3 play fighting on my lap, it was quite surreal!! We then went in with the teen & adult tigers, the only thing I didn't like about it was how commercialized it was, the photographer was asking if we wanted a picture lying on the tiger, we only wanted natural pictures so said no. I really doubt the tigers enjoy people sitting on them either. The enclosures are a bit small for my liking. But everything seemed to run okay! Last but not least we went in with the new born tigers (about 1month old) most of them were asleep and seriously cute!!
After Tiger Kingdom we got a taxi to 'Chiang Mai Zoo'... which, without a doubt, is the worst zoo we have ever been to, the zoo is on a hill, so you have to get a bus up and down, the road was really damaged and generally a big mess... when i say damaged i mean massive chunks of the road had broken off and fallen down the hill. We saw deer and a pheasant... and that was it, so we may as well have stayed in England for that! However, the aquarium was pretty cool, we had a lot of fun in there!
On the 3rd August we went to the Elephant Nature Park which is an hour away from Chiang Mai in the mountains. We learnt all about the trauma of what the elephants went through before they were rescued by 'Lek' (which is Thai for small, and small she is). It left quite an impression on me and Lee so once returning to Chiang Mai we decided to volunteer for a week at the park.
Lee went mountain biking twice this week, apparently it was so amazing the first time he had to do it again, although he fell off 6 times the second time because it was so ridiculously wet (it's been raining every day since we got to Chiang Mai). I think the mountain biking here is very different to back home so it's given Lee more of an adrenaline rush. While Lee was throwing himself down a mountain on a bike I decided to catch up with two girls we had met in Koh Tao. After that Lee was aching so much we decided to go for a massage, which turned from relaxing to amusing when a little Thai lady popped her head around the corner and said to Lee 'excuse me sir, we don't have any female masseuse's available right now, is it okay if you have a male', at which point I looked at Lee, his face dropped and then he nodded to be polite. Seriously, his face was a picture!
The next day we began our week at the elephant nature park...
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