PG & beerman play 'tourist'

Our only real ‘tourist’ day .. we had organised the taxi man from the airport to take us up to Doi Suthep and the Tiger Kingdom today.  Thought about using ‘public transport’ but given I knew it was a super windy road to the temple on the mountain, I figured a trip like that in the back of a songthaew was probably not something Tony’s knee would take kindly to, so taxi it was.

 Doi Suthep is a mountain situated ‘behind’ Chiang Mai with a large temple complex on top.  You run the gauntlet of the usual souvenir sellers if you go up the stairs (all 300+ of them) but we took the cable car up for 30baht ($1).  It’s a bit hard to describe so maybe I’ll just post some photos instead.

 

 

The view of Chiang mai would be spectacular in the dry season.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next stop was Tiger Kingdom.  We did the “will we, won’t we”  thing – and while I don’t particularly like to see animals exploited, I contented myself with the notion that without something like Tiger Kingdom, these amazing animals may not be alive and the species would be one step closer to endangered.  There is al sorts of discussion as to whether the tigers are drugged, de-clawed, mis-treated etc – nothing we saw today gave us any concern.  The cats were beautiful, we checked the claws on a couple and they were certainly there, and while they were quiet, I do not believe they were drugged – our domestic cats sleep for large parts of the day so why not these guys.

Awsome experience and I must admit I really did not realise just how big these girls were.  This one loved having her tummy scratched.

Tony found it much easier to pat the tigers on their lounges - kneeling on the ground was not an option for him.

Is this the most beautiful face ever?

  These two were really enjoying chasing this palm frond - just like our girls chase things on bits of string

Playing chasings & pounce in the pool .. just what a tiger ordered on a hot day. 

 

 

Home early afternoon, a very late lunch, a nap and we’ll head to the night markets again tonight.