Tiger Kindom and King Cobras

For my last day in Chiang Mai, I decided to visit the Tiger Kingdom. I really skeptical about it at first and did quite a bit of research before I went. I didn't want to go to a place where animals are abused or mistreated. After I was satisfied that the tigers were living under humane conditions, I booked a driver to take me there and to the cobra show and orchid farm through my hotel. I arrived at the Tiger Kingdom and had to choose my "package. They are categorized as big tigers, medium sized tigers small tigers and baby tigers. You can see any combination of sizes for various prices. For about $15.00, you can even hire a photographer to tag along and take pictures for you. I was all over that. After careful deliberation, I chose to see the baby tigers, the small tigers, the biggest tigers and a photographer.
I went to take out my credit card to pay and realized I had lost my ATM card. AGAIN! You may recall from a previous post that I left my UAE ATM card in the machine at Bangkok airport. Well, I had just now realized that I also lost my US ATM card in the machine around the corner of my hotel. Not again! I got my wits about me and called the hotel. I asked to speak to the man that had booked this trip to Tiger Kingdom. He had told me where I could find the ATM machine. I asked him if he could please go to the bank and see if my ATM card could possibly still be there. He said he would check right away. Within five minutes. he called my driver and told me that he got my ATM card back. Hallelujah! Wow! I was so happy. This is one of the reasons that I loved Thailand. The people there were really friendly and helpful and not looking to constantly try to cheat you.

So, off I went. The cages were spotless and since the tigers get bathed every day, they even felt and smelled nice. My photographer dude literally took about 300 pictures and put them all on a cd. These are some of my favorites.

Babies!

Say cheese!

Nap time.

Hey, where are you going?

Nap time.

The tigers are not sedated. They are just used to being handled by people and actually seem bored by it all.

This BIG kitty liked to have his tummy rubbed really hard! As you can see by the picture, I wasn't convinced.

After Tiger Kingdom, we made a stop at the King Cobra Show. There was a group of four British guys and maybe ten Filipinos at the show. We walked around a bit and browsed the different snakes. The handlers eagerly draped the snakes on us to the delight and squeals of the other guests. I don't know why snakes don't really scare me. Maybe it's because my parents have had a snake family living in their garage behind some cabinets for years. They routinely come out in the morning to sun themselves and do whatever it is that snakes do in the morning. Apparently, the guy doing the cobra show worked with Sylvester Stallone for the Rambo IV movie.

Thankfully, I'm not afraid of snakes!

Scorpions! Ya! Their claws got stuck in the lace at the top of my tank top. I was waiting for one to get pissed off while they were taking it off and sting me!

Going for the crotch!

And again, going for the crotch! Poor British guy!

Getting venom from the snake.

Special drink anyone?

Kisses!

Ta da!

Listen to the cobras hissing. They are PISSED!

Lastly, I made a quick trip to the Mae Sa Orchid Farm. Their main objective is to conserve the orchids which are being depleted. Orchids have more than 250,000 species out of which 473 are present in Chiang Mai.. They are trying to increase the number of orchids that have become endangered due to massive forest destruction.
I had just a few hours left until I had to depart Thailand for my 24 hour trek back to Al Ain. I took a walk across the street to where there was some street food, a little entertainment and cheap clothes to be had!

Cute traditional Thai band.

Elephant God shrine

Mmm..German Sausage and Pad Thai?

I flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok and had a four hour layover. To my delight, they had small areas of Lazy Boy chairs! Woo hoo! Why don't ALL airports have these? I had a nice comfortable nap for a few hours until my flight to Doha, Qatar where I had a SEVEN hour layover with no where to lay down and put my feet up. Ugh!