Back in Bangkok we arrived after Spike recovered from his illness and I dosed myself with drugs to get through the day. Not our favourite city (well the backpackers area anyway, as we can’t speak for all of it) so we were more than happy to jump on a train for a 14 hour overnight trip up to Chang Mai. We missed out on the fast train and on a aircon carriage but at least we were on our way.
So far I really like Chang Mai. I only miss the street fruit from Bangkok! Haha. Where is my Mango Chang Mai? Our hotel is nice (which was a very welcome change from the one we found in Bangkok) and for a decent price.
With limited time in the north I thought it best to get a bit of a plan underway and get stuck into all the things we want to try and fit in. Day one and we started with checking out the markets, finding food and the like. After we had recovered from the train trip the next day it was all go and we headed out to Tiger Kingdom to play with some tigers. Epic doesn’t even begin to cover it. Cuddling a 4 month old tiger and hearing their heart beat is awesome. They spend most of their time, about 18 hours a day, sleeping. Basically it is hot and just like a house cat, they like to sleep when it’s hot. I kept forgetting the little ones were still dangerous and accidently would pat their heads, one of the many no nos in their training. The trainers at the big cats were hilarious, grabbing our hands and cupping the tigers private areas (there are photos on facebook to prove this strange event). We spent about 30minutes in total hanging out with the tigers. Best $40 I’ve spent in a while though.
As if that wasn’t enough the next day I headed to the flight of the gibbon (as seen on The Amazing Race). Spike had done something similar in Costa Rica and has an assignment due, so stood this one out and I headed off for the adventure. Flight of the Gibbon is basically set of tree top zip lines (flying foxes) through the jungle. The longest one being an 800 metre long one. This was one of my favourites as you had time to get over the speed and the feeling and relax and enjoy the view (which was AMAZING).
There was one the guide had to push me off though. It was a superman one. Where you had the option of the normal line or the bungy superman line. Basically you fall a couple of metres and the bungy stops you and you zip line across and into a net that you catch onto and climb up. Turns out it was one of my favourites though and I just wanted to go again. Sometimes it is funny the things that scare you to begin with but then don’t and vice versa (e.g. my Chu Chi tunnel experience).
There was also a small freefall abseil one down a tree and the last one was a 40metre free fall tree abseil of your choice (normal, superman, upside-down, fast, slow). I went with superman, face first towards the ground. It was good fun.
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| Me on the normal abseil |
We saw some Gibbons too, which was cool. Black ones are male and white are female. The mother was teaching a baby one how to swing.
Tigers and Ziplines, just another couple of days on the road :D
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