The following day we all woke up about the same time, and had breakfast at the hostel. Inon was picked up and taken off for his 3 day trekking in the jungle, whilst Jenn, Pierce and I decided to go to Tiger Kingdom. Our hostel offered to take us in the Jeep (aircon yay) for 100THB each (£2) and as it’s over an hour drive away we thought that was pretty good. The driver also waited for us to finish and drove us back, and also took us to lunch and once again waited! This hostel (Chiang Mai backpack house) is really so kind, I can’t recommend it enough. At the end of the trip the driver even said don’t worry about paying, and I said no he had been fantastic! Tiger Kingdom is free to just look around but you have to pay to go inside the enclosures. To go see the babies its 600THB or the adults 400THB. I paid 1900THB (£40) to go to see babies, small1, small2, medium, and adults, and have a free CD made with a professional photographer in one enclosure (babies.). I figured I wouldn’t get the opportunity again and I wanted to make most of it, but to be honest the babies are small, and the rest of the tigers are big and the adults are huge, so you probably don’t need to go to all enclosures! There are other deals too, depending on how many different aged tigers you want to see.
Me and Jenn paid to see all, and Pierce just paid for the adults, so we all went round together taking photos. The babies were obviously adorable, and quite playful. One of them that I was posing with had a dream and rolled over into my arms!
[Please note I did research and these tigers are not drugged! They are sleepy because they are generally nocturnal and it’s too hot during the day to do much more than sleep! The reason they are tame is because they have been hand reared since babies and so are used to people.]
However some were alert and awake and to prove it when we were in the small2 enclosure, as it was just Jenn and I and no other tourists the carers played with the tigers and got a toy that they could run around and catch. Having 5 near fully grown tigers fighting 5 foot in font of you over a toy is definitely a unique experience. I got some great shots of the tigers jumping. After the tigers I came back to the hotel and ended up speaking to the owners for 4 hours! Just about why they chose to open a hostel and how cute their daughter is (Think Boo from Monsters Inc!) Later that day I met Jenn at her hostel and went to check out the Night Bazaar, but we didn’t get very far as ended up in an american style restaurant eating dinner.
ZoZo the Adventurer 