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Today we decided we would go see number one attraction in Chiang Mai. This of course was, suprise suprise, a temple. The temple is waaaaay up on the hills so we got a taxi who told us he would wait for us while we went up the 300 steps to the temple and have a look around and then take us back to town again, sounded like a scam to me, especially since we didnt know how far up the hill the temple was. It turns out it was about 20km outside of town, and up the craziest road of all time, it just wound and wound and wound up and up and up. The drivers like to cut the corners, seemingly for the sake of it at times, they even cut the short corners for some reason??? Anyway, the temple was pretty crap and the view was almost completely obscured from view by the clouds. There were some school kids doing some sort of traditional dance out in front that Regina watched for ages.... boring!!!!
We got back down to the taxi and thankfully he was still there. On the way back down the hill he pulled over and got out to come around to us, brochure in his hand. We had told him to bring us back to the hostel, but he passed us the brochure for Tiger Kingdom and asked if we wanted to go. Regina asked how much it was and he said 200 Baht, seemed ok, and the map looked to me like it was situated just outside the main town, so it would be easy to escape just in case (paranoia!!!). Instead of being on the outskirts of the town though it was on the outskirts of the next town, 15km away... thanfully we saw a sign for the place so at least it existed. Still though, we got to the place and found out that the 200 baht was for the lift, not to see the tigers. That was a bit more. I paid 420 to go in the cage with the large tigers for 15 minutes. Regina wasn't too keen on it so she waited outside. It cost up to about 2000 to go see all the tigers, smallest, small, medium and large. You get to go in the cages with all of them for playing and photos. A brazillian girl, living in Dublin, was in the same group as me, so I took photos for her and she took them for me since the guards cant take them obviously!!!! It was brilliant. I got to lie on the tiger and rub its belly, they were so soft it was even softer than a dogs hair. It definately wasnt a person in a tiger costume, and it was definately not drugged, nor was it tied up. They were just lying there and looking up and around every now and again. We got to sit and rub two of them and afterwards walk around the outside of the cages to photo the other tigers. The small ones were like little dogs chasing their tails and smiling and happy out. I wish I had gone in with them but they were more expensive and since Regina was too afraid to go in I kind of had to go with the brazillian girl to get any photos taken.... It was still worth it though.
The taxi man thanfully again was still waiting for us after and he dropped us back to town, for 800 baht in total, thats 20 euro to you and me. Very nice man, he reminded me of my sisters husband Colin, no offence Colin, he had your hair style and was very friendly!!!!!! We had some lunch, and then tried to upload some elephant photos, it was taking too long because someone was on the phone clogging up the internet so I started writing this.... and here we are now, the blog is actual current. There is a girl sitting next to me typing, outside some foreign guy is talking, mopeds going by every now and again.......
Not to be outdone by my Tiger cage antics Regina went for a manicure and a pedicure... cost about 4 euro to get her nails cut and painted basically. They are purple now by the way, I might post some photos, then again that would be weird
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