Chiang Mai - day 83

We arrived at Chiang Mai station around 11h30 and took a minibus to our hostel, Spicythai Backpackers. The hostel is amazing for its price: only 5 euros per person per night, including free internet and breakfast! And the staff is very helpful and friendly. Anyway, we had lunch near the hostel and took a “taxi” to Doi Suthep, a temple up on a hill (1600 meters altitude) about 15 kilometers outside Chiang Mai. If we’d have known the actual state the car was in, we probably wouldn’t have taken that taxi: the tires were too big for the car and the suspension was crap, so each time there was a bend in the road (and there were lots!), the tire would touch the car and we’d just pray that the tire wouldn’t explode! On top of that, on the way down, the driver let the car roll down the hill to “roll-start” it (obviously after removing the stone that was blocking the tire while the car was parked so it wouldn’t roll down hill)!! Oh well, the temple up on the hill was nice, but the central piece of interest was surrounded by scaffolding. Like so many temples in Thailand, the predominant color to be seen was gold. The view over the city was great; it made us realize how big the city actually is… After getting back to town, we went back to the hostel to get changed and check some things on internet and then headed back out again. We took a taxi (= the back of a pick-up truck with a broken exhaust pipe) all the way to the Tiger Kingdom and were amazed to find a place that looked like a luxurious resort. By the time we got there, it was already dark and the tigers were too active to pose for any pictures with us, but we did go and see the baby tigers (2 months old). We got to spend some time with them alone in their cage which was just incredible! They are so cute and playful... and Pierre agreed... until one of them bit him in the arm… after that, Pierre just wanted to throw the damn thing against the wall… so Pierre has now officially been bitten by a tiger and will probably keep a lasting souvenir of it! In the meantime, Nat was getting sexually harassed by the tiger since it jumped on her and started licking his way up to her face... at which point Nat was just praying it wouldn’t bite her in the throat and cause her instant death while Pierre was getting everything on video... After the baby tigers, we went over to have a look at their parents... they were both huge and very aggressive! One of them actually barked at us (I know you wouldn’t think tigers bark, but that one very clearly barked in a dog kind of way!) and was staring at us like we were some prey or some kind of food. We saw some more tigers, some only 4 months old, others 1 year old. They were all beautiful animals and we enjoyed a nice dinner on the terrace of the restaurant overlooking their playing area. Overall it was an unforgettable and unique experience!

Weather: very hot, sunny and for the first time, a blue sky!