Day 4 - Tiger Kingdom, Long necked women, Pharmacies

Main attraction of the day was a visit to Tiger Kingdom, a small tiger park where the visitors can get up close to the creatures. You have various options for which age group of tiger you want to spend time with, ranging from babies (which are more expensive) to adults, as well as combo options where you can choose 2+ age groups and get a small discount. The park has come under criticism from some individuals and animal groups claiming the tigers are heavily drugged to make them safe for visitors to get up close. In response to this the park admin has plastered up several info sheets about tigers to strenuously reject these drugging claims. Among the facts they state tigers sleep 16 hrs a day and are only usually active at night. Tigers are more active at night as this is the best time for them to hunt prey since their nightvision is superior to most other animals. these tigers don't react to being petted and stroked by visitors as they have been domesticated all their lives and have become desensitized to this. These facts all made logical sense to me, so i didn't have any moral objection to the visit. I know the 16 hrs sleep thing is true cuz last time i went to dreamworld on the gold coast to see the tigers all i got to see was a bunch of them sleeping while the trainer announced to the crowd : "tigers sleep 16 hrs a day". exciting show. Anyway i ended up choosing the double combo, 4 month olds and adults. you can also pay an extra $12 to have a photographer come in and take pics for you, which i also purchased. if you ever do go there i recommend the photographer since he gets u into various "positions" with the tiger and knows how to get them tigers to co-operate and distract. The 4mths old were alot more fun and interactive, but i think i enjoyed it more cuz i wasn't stressing so much about losing a limb or head. thankfully their claws have also been trimmed (or maybe haven't grown much yet?), so scratch marks were also nothing to worry about. good thing too since he did paw me in the face once.

The adults were much less interested in their visitors and seemed as though they just wanted to sleep. the trainers have to repeatedly agitate them with a bush on the end of a stick so that they show a bit of life. however i was more than happy for the tigers to remain sleepy and docile. who cares about the action shot. didn't really wanted to be within striking distance of an agitated and pissed-off tiger. I tried to take several precautions before entering the pen to minimize the chance of any freak attack. Things like changing into a darker coloured shirt at the hotel, and removing my mobile from my pocket in case someone happened to call me mid-stroke. Never choose that ring/sms tone that sounds like a bird chirp if visiting tiger park ok. While hesitantly petting the tigers I was silently praying that everything about the non-use of tranquilizers on the tigers was true. Didn't want the damn things wearing off while i was in there, or the trainer could've underdosed them that morning!

The photographer gets you into some great poses with the tigers, but these positions also put you in extremely vulnerable positions. When he asked me to "spoon the tiger" and lay with my head down on the tigers ass as a pillow i responded "are you kidding me?!" Anyway i took a leap of faith (and remembered i had organized travel insurance) and happy to report i still have my head, all limbs and appendages accounted for :)

After tiger kingdom it was short trip down the road to a kayan village, one of the hill tribes that are famed for their long necked women. There are various stories to explain the origin of this custom, but the one i've heard is that different hill tribes used to steal women from other tribes and that the rings and resulting elongation of the neck was to mark and identify the women to the kayan tribe. The rings don't pull the neck upwards, but rather push the shoulders down. Pretty extreme if you ask me, i think i would've gone with a tatoo! it costs about $8 to enter the village and all the women and girls sell handicrafts from stalls. I knew the goods were not handmade there in the village but was still happy to buy from them since i knew the money was probably well needed. btw, they start putting on the rings as young girls, and the lady in the pic doesn't have black teeth for lack of brushing but because of chewing some sort of food or tobacco

The taxi drivers in chiang mai all seem to run their own tours as well, so whenever you get into one they always ask you where you've been already and give the plug for their tour. It's a little annoying cuz some are pretty insistent and try to change your choice of attractions to ones that are part of their tour. and they'll have brocheres, pics and other paraphenalia ready to show you too. One of the more intersting drivers i had that day was a guy named "Mr Wood". He told me he was also a muay thai kickboxer and actually had a fight on the next night. he told me he was undefeated in the nth of thailand and was going down to the south to face their best man there. Hmm don't know i completely believed him since he was still here driving me around in a taxi. But his family also ran an elephant park for tourists and when i told him i was going to another more popular one he tried to change my mind. when i told him i'd already booked he seemed to become quite dejected and depressed. Geez what am i supposed to do?!

The only other thing of interest that day was a visit to a pharmacy. The one i visited was across the road from a girlie club (you can always pick them from the neon lights flashing out front, that and of course the scantily clad girls parading around). Appropriately the pharmacy's front counter cabinet was stocked with condoms, a range of contraception pills and the morning after pill. Azithromycin and other various antibiotics are also within plain sight in case of any mishaps. You don't need a prescription for these and many other drugs here in thailand. oh and opioid based products are not sold in retail pharmacy, only supplied through hospitals.