Thailand Travels: Day 7, Wat Phrathat Dot Suthep and Tiger Kingdom

We arrived in Chiang Mai at about 9:30 am and were greeted by our bus driver who took us to our next hotel in Chiang Mai. We'd expected to be able to shower and change after the night on the train, however our rooms were quite ready when we arrived. Instead we had to have a quick freshen up in the toilets before Sek took us to a place called Baan Bakery, just round the corner from the hotel.



Baan was run by a friendly Chinese family and sold very tasty pastries, freshly baked and prepared french bread sandwiches and very strong coffee! It was the best breakfast so far here. To date I've either skipped this meal or only eaten fruit smoothies as the Thai breakfast is far to similar to the Thai lunch and the Thai dinner for my liking!! (Noodles, noodles and more noodles!!)

After we were suitably stuffed our driver took us to visit another temple called Wat Phrathat Dot Suthep. There were over 300 steps up to this temple but once we reached the top it was worth it because this was another stunning golden beauty.

Next up was lunch and Tiger Kingdom. There were 4 options to chose from, all of which included going inside an enclosure and petting the tigers. A really large tiger cost 420 THB, a medium tiger for 420 THB, small tigers for 520 THB and the baby tiger cubs 620 THB.



I was naturally drawn to the baby tiger cubs because they are so cute... and I knew I wasn't interested in being anywhere near the big tigers! Far too dangerous and asking for trouble...

Tiger Kingdom claims not to drug it's tigers, however I wasn't too sure how true this was as the Tigers were very docile when I saw them and it just doesn't seem natural for a predatory mammal to lay there and let you rub it's belly. I felt quiet guilty once I was in the enclosure because I felt uncomfortable about wild animals being caged in that way purely for my entertainment. I'm glad I went though because it made me realise that it's a cruel way for animals to be treated.



As well as tigers there was also a huge Lion in a cage. As I got close to his cage for a photo, he let out an almighty roar and I nearly jumped out of my skin. And I thought to myself... that's probably his entertainment for the day, scaring tourists that are silly enough to put their face up to his cage! Haha!

After my slot with the baby tiger cubs, I went and waited for Kirsty, Emily and Helena to come out of theirs. They'd picked to see the largest tiger of all and it was amusing to see how petrified they all were when they came out. They were all physically shaking and saying how scared they've been, especially when the zookeeper had encouraged the tiger to jump up onto the tiger and do tricks!



Once everyone had seen their Tiger, the group split. A few people went to see the long neck tribes and the orchid butterfly farm and the rest of us took the bus back to the hotel to freshen up and unpack. It gets pretty hot on the buses so I decided to get a bit of fresh air and hang out the back with Sek!!

Kirsty went to see the long neck tribes and by her accounts it did sound very interesting.

Later that evening Sek arranged for the group to go to Thai boxing. The tickets and transport were 600 THB and I wasn't too fussed about this option so I skipped this and chose to take advantage of the massage parlour across the road from our hotel. I paid 200 THB for a full body oil massage and it was money well spent because the aromatherapy oils worked wonders and I was off to sleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.