They say "Never have regrets.."

After leaving Pai we took a bumpy 3 hour journey to a larger city Chiang Mai...we had some time to kill so we went to the famous, or infamous, Tiger Kingdom to play with tigers. This is where I make a huge mistake. I REGRET MY ACTIONS AT TIGER KINGDOM. There I said it. Here is the story...

We get to the Kingdom and there are a few options for you to choose...you can "play" / lay down and take pictures, with small, medium and large tigers...all at different prices. I choose small, I assume I will be cuddling atleast 4 baby tigers and they will crawl all over me and I will have the "coolest" pictures. My friend Stewart chooses smallest as well, I think he did this for safety reasons, but I could be wrong! Jill, Condon and Wayne chose medium tigers, at a cheaper price, I am curious why smaller tigers are worth more, I assume its because they are better, IT MUST BE BECAUSE THEY ARE BETTER! (I was wrong).

After we pay up, we walk through the kingdom and can see all the tigers in their cages. The medium tiger was ready for its "photo shoot" so Jill, Condon and Wayne went in and their 15 minutes of tiger fun started. I watched with envy as this huge tiger is being forced to lay down and then Jill gets to lay down on its back and take pictures. It wasn't all fun and games either, there was the danger aspect. The Thai men handling the tigers were constantly hitting them with sticks, clucking at it, having you move back from the tiger. Its like they casually knew it was thinking about attacking...I COULD BE WAY WRONG about all this danger talk...But I think it was a risky move to play with tigers. Soon I was ready for my turn...

Stewart and I walk toward the baby tigers. We get to their cage and it is empty. I am thinking...yes, thats right! More tigers for ME. We get in the cage with them and i'm a little confused because there are only 2 baby tigers in the damn cage. The first one I see just stares at me and runs away...the other one is worthless, sleeping in the corner. I think to myself, time to wake it up! But the minute it opens its baby eyes all it does is run away from me and Stewart and play with the other tiger. The front desk told me I would have 15 minutes to play and take pictures with the tigers...but all I am getting is 15 min. worth of chasing two uninterested tigers around a cage that is WAY TO BIG for ONLY 2 tigers....The tigers would not even sit still long enough to let me hold them and get a decent picture.

I dont know how long we got to hang out in the cage, but it was too long. I was bored out of my mind. I think Stewart enjoyed it...or he is lying because he knows we made a mistake. Looking back, it was tragic. I should have gone for the gold, and layed down with a king size tiger. Much cooler than some baby tigers wrestling eachother. So do you know what I have to do? I have to go back to Tiger Kingdom and get what I deserve...a picture of me laying down on a humongous tiger. And it will be cheaper this time....always a plus.

Updates

What have I been up to? I haven't posted since September...WOOPS

I'll tell ya what I have been doing.

In October I was enjoying being back in Melbourne. The weather was slowly getting better...the sun was coming out! I was working at the Stroke Foundation as well as occasionaly doing hospitality work. I celebrated Halloween in major style as a Captain Jack esque type pirate. We had a big halloween house party which was also a farewell party to everyone living in it...the sharehouse was going to be demolished and we all had to move! Our bizzare landlord just magically had a new house for us all to move into. It was a big house...and he is very 'crafty" and knows how to turn a 2 bedroom room into a 4 bedroom room. You get the deal...he crams people in and demands lots of $$$. Oh the new house had a pool as well...his major selling point. WHAT A CREEP...time to bail!

But now I am in November. Do you know what I do now??????????? I decide to store most of my stuff at friend's houses and go to South East Asia. I tell the National Stroke Foundation that I am leaving for a bit and they say I can have my job back when I return. Perfect. So all of a sudden I am on a 9 hour flight to Bangkok with Jill and another friend, Stewart. We arrive in Bangkok and spend 3 days buying CHEAP CRAP, but I loved the cheap crap. We also met up with Condon and Wayne, a friend from Darwin. One day we decided to get out of the busy city and go to Ayutthaya...the old Thai Capital. We spent the day bike riding around looking at ruins and old temples.

Our next move was to go north to Pai. A little hippy town with lots of places to explore. I loved Pai! There was a night market everynight with food stands, jewelry, clothes, etc. Everything! One night I bought a bracelet from a guy named Boy. He was big into stones..my bracelet has a labrodite stone and I guess it is supposed to help and heal headaches...or something. That Boy...he really sold me! The major highlight was our scooter/motor bike rentals that we kept the entire time as our own personal vehicles. 100 baht a day...that is like 3 or 4$ a day! So we drove all around Pai, out of the little city and up the mountains to waterfalls and tiny villages. We rode along a back road where there were a lot of elephant camps as well as hot springs.

We pulled our scooters over at an elephant camp and decided to not only ride the elephant but also swim with them as well. The lady said it was really fun...and pointed to pictures of other people who were in the water with these huge elephants. She was right...it did look fun. SO WHY NOT? Stewart and I got on one elephant, Condon and Wayne were on another elephant. Each elephant was led by an old Thai guy. We think these men were high on drugs, we know one of them snorted something on our walk. But hey, too late now, we are all on these big elephants walking down a road being passed by cars. So we walk on, for a long time it seems...then we are walking down a hill and I see water. It looks pretty dirty, but like I said, its too late. So our elephant creeps towards the water and we are on the edge, about to go in. But I can tell he really doesnt want to get in! Condon's elephant practically jumps in and then just lays down in the water. This causes Wayne and Condon to fall off and the water is rushing pretty hard so they are struggling to get abck on the elephant. After our thai guy changes into his bathing suit...he pulls our elephants ear for a solid minute and we are in the water and our elephant looks suicidal as it just falls to its side into the water. Stewart and I fall off and struggle getting back on the thing. The thai guys continue making the elephants lay down in the water, we continue "swimming with them" aka falling off and having to climb back on. I literally laughed the entire time. If you want to know exactly how it happened I can literally show you because the whole time we were being taped and we have a DVD of this adventure.

Pai was a great 4 days! Our last night we went to a half moon party in the jungle. A real jungle you ask??? Im not 100% sure...But it was really far away from town, really dark, lots of trees, etc. so how was I to judge whether it was a true jungle. But having a party in the jungle was a great way to leave Pai.

More SE Asia stories to come....