We were all pretty tired from our adventures in our first day in Chiang Mai, so we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep promptly.
The next day was an early day; we woke at around 6am in order to get ready to meet with Jean's family, who was going to take us around the town. There were a few confusions however, and we didn't end up leaving until a couple hours later. But during that time, we decided to sign up for a day tour for tomorrow that consisted of elephant riding, river rafting, bamboo rafting and a hike to a waterfall! We were quite excited to get those plans set in stone and ready to go.
Jean's uncle arrive to pick us up, and we set off! The day plan was to visit the San Kamphaeng Hot Springs, and then the Tiger Kingdom. The drive out to the area with all the tourist attractions was quite long, so we felt quite uncomfortable to have to impose on Jean's uncle, but he seemed perfectly fine with driving us.
The San Kamphaeng Hot Springs park was a beautiful place, with many green areas and gardens for family and kids to hang out. It was another blistering hot day, and we walked along the path, following signs that point us to "Hot Springs". There were many other areas of the park including restaurant areas, a mineral pool, buildings for mineral baths, and more! I was quite excited to finally visit a hot springs, but as we got closer, we realized something was wrong. The hot springs were outside in plain view, and were very small. There was a sign indicating that the temperature of the water was 105 degrees Celcius. It also says "Boil egg".
Oh, it was a hot springs use to boil eggs. I mean, who would've known! And sure enough, as we stepped closer, the smell of cooking eggs wafted to our noses, and the sight of eggs in baskets chilling (or heating?) in the water provided visual confirmation of the type of hot springs this was.
I was kind of disappointed, but we weren't going to let that ruin our day! We decided to get some papaya salad for a snack to share and, man, was it spicy! It was incredibly delicious though...although my mouth was burning, I couldn't stop eating the dish.
Afterwards, Jean, Jordan, and I decided to go the mineral swimming pool. We got changed and soon enough, we were splashing around in the pool and talking about Thai movies, such as Ong Bak. It was quite nice and relaxing, although the "minerals" made our skin feel quite interesting and rubbery.
After our swim, we met up with Grace to eat some lunch. Grace and Jean's uncle had already had lunch while we were swimming, but she still graced us with her presence while we ate some Thai food and drank some herbal tea. The food was decent, but it definitely wasn't spicy enough (especially compared to the papaya salad...)
We decided to ask Jean's uncle to drive us home instead of taking us out further, since the Tiger Kingdom was on the other side of Chiang Mai city and the opposite direction of his home. On the way home, Jean's uncle surprised us with a stop at the Sa Paper and Umbrella Handicraft Center, in the Bo Sang Village. There, we read about and saw the different steps that it takes to create a handmade umbrella. It starts off with getting the fibres of the sa trees and ends in with intricate, detailed and beautiful painting of the umbrellas. Jordan and I got our passport painted on - we both got elephants paintings! It was a beautiful souvenir, and cost only 100 THB. The artists that painted our artwork, and the rest of the artists I am sure, were very good at what they do.
After a half hour ride, we were dropped off at our hotel. Jean decided to go with her uncle to visit her relatives again, and to say goodbye to them before we leave for the island the next day. We said our goodbyes and thank you to Jean's uncle and they set off.
Grace, Jordan and my next destination was the Tiger Kingdom! We wanted to make this as economical as possible, since we were spending quite a bit of money on tourist attractions and transportation already. Amazingly, Grace bargained with a tuktuk driver, and got us a ride to the Tiger Kingdom (~20km) and back for only 330 THB! She is fierce!
Soon enough, we were there. The tuktuk driver point to where we was going to wait for us, and we went into the main entrance. We found out that the place actually closes in about one hour and a half, so we hurried to pay and entered the areas of the tigers.
It was nerve wracking at first. We met some of the trainers, who were very friendly, and read some of the ground rules printed on their signs. These included things such as not touching the tiger on the face, no fast movements, not loose clothing etc, no flash photography. A trainer led us into the cage, where there were about 4 to 5 adult size, big tigers. Some were walking around, some were lazing around.
The trainer led us to one of the tigers, and demonstrated to us what to do. I volunteered to go first. I was definitely nervous, but high on adrenalin as I approached the tiger and sat behind him. He was so tranquil - he was sprawled on his side, eyes half closed, enjoying the dimming daylight and the approaching evening. I petted him firmly, and played with his tail (the trainer told us to do so). It was definitely a one of a kind expereince - I was still a bit nervous, since after all, they are tigers, but it was amazing to be so close to one. I petted him a few more times, and switched spots with Grace as she embarked on her first tiger petting.
Jordan went next! The trainer instructed him to lie on the tigers stomach, By this time, the tiger was on his back, with his paws tucked in, in a sleeping position; he was probably bored and sleepy of all these tourists. It was quite cute! Jordan rested his head on the tiger as the trainers surrounding laughed and said "Tiger pillow!" We noticed that they defintiely have a great sense of humour.
Not wanting to bother this tiger too much, the trainer took us to another tiger. Although laying on the ground still, this one was more alert and less sprawling. We took turns again taking pictures, and the many trainers surrounding us were incredibly friendly and offered to take pictures for us, while suggesting different poses. It was probably because it was late in the day and there were less tourists around, therefore we received much attention from the workers! One of the trainers took a fantastic picture of all 3 of us with the tiger looking at the camera - it was a great shot.
We felt like we had a great deal of tiger petting, and enough stress on our hearts, so we said thank you and goodbye to the trainers and set off. We wandered around the park for a bit; we saw many tigers in their cages, prancing around as workers brought the slabs of chicken. They growled and fought over each other to get the first piece of chicken! Some of the older tigers were much more relaxed while some of the smaller ones were play-fighting with each other and making quite a great deal of noise. we also saw a lion in one of the cages, although it was sad to see that he seemed to be unenergetic and unenthusiastic about the chicken lying in his cage. There were tiger cubs as well - they were extremely cute and when they were playing, they sounded quite similar to kids wailing.
Satisfied, we left the Tiger Kingdom, and took our original tuktuk home. We took a rest for a while, and met up with Grace a while later (Jean wasn't back yet) in search of food. We were lucky to find a legit place a couple blocks away that had tables right beside the main road of Chiang Mai town. We ordered seafood and pad thai, and ate under the moonlight, streetlights as well as in the glare of passing cars. It was pretty awesome. For dessert, Grace and Jordan ordered some 'Rotee' for us to share - it was similar to crepes and housed delicious things such as chocolate syrup and fruits.
Our stomachs were full and the night was young, so we decided to wander around. We ended up straying to a nearby street with loud music, and we realized that we had just discovered what seemed to be the LKF of Chiang Mai - except there were no drunk people stumbling on the streets, and the air was clear of cigarette smoke. The streets were spacious, the bars less crowded but the atmosphere was still lively. The three of us sat in a bar for a while, enjoying the music. Jean joined us eventually, and after checking out a couple more bars (one boasted FREE BEER! but we were apprehensive and did not wander in), we heading out of the Chiang Mai LKF and hit up a bar with a pool table. The owner was actually a Westerner with a Thai wife, and we stayed there for a while playing pool and enjoying drinks.
That was the end of our last night in Chiang Mai. It was another great day, and we were excited for our next day's adventures!
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