Oh my God, oh my Buddah

As we settle into our seats we hear the stewardess over the intercom. What we thought to be a typical "welcome" spiel turned into a warning.  "Please excuse the delay, there is a typhoon warning in Hong Kong."  Immediately a sinking feeling in my stomach begins to take hold of me. And then the voice comes across the intercom, "flight attendants prepare for take off". Wait...time out. I quickly grab an attendant...I'm sorry maybe I misunderstood I thought you just said we had a typhoon warning? Oh we fine, there always  typhoon in Hong Kong. Oh well as long as its a normal occurrence? After 20+hours of flying I find myself in beautiful Thighland (for those of you who are not literate in obnoxious cinematic quotes I am in Thailand). LAX> Hong Kong> Bangkok (pick up Shelby and Victoria) > Chiang Mai. Upon arriving we quickly retrieve  our bags and scuttled out of the airport.

Thankfully our hotel had an airport transportation shuttle, God bless FSR. Trying to function after that travel day would have been impossible.  Entering our hotel is like entering Buddha's secret garden. The FSR never fails, authentic Thai buildings surrounding a rice field. As we enter the open air lobby we are all awe struck by the beautiful architecture and landscape. We quickly settle into our bungalows and head into town. We have three nights in Chiang Mai and we cannot waste a second. We hop in a shuttle and head straight to the Tiger Kingdom. Due to all the animal rights groups and general US safety laws this tiger experience would not have been made possible back home...cheers to third world countries? Our tiger trek began with cuddling baby tigers (basically the cutest beings you will ever encounter) it ended with jumping in a grown up tiger cage. This encounter was exhilarating and terrifying, we were the LAST group to enter before dinner time.Things I have learned from the Tiger Kingdom obviously tigers hate cinnamon (more Hangover quotes) but they also dislike camera flashes (...upon switching my camera settings my flash turned on my life flashed before my eyes...) a tiger  encounter whether wild or captive  is never a comfortable experience especially  surrounded by little Asian men telling you to cuddle with the tiger. We each lined up to take our pictures then attempted to hustle out of the pen, but no the little Asian men claimed we had not had our "full tiger experience" and we are then wrangled to the pool area where we proceeded to watch the hungry tigers "play." I don't think we could have run out of that cage faster. Although a phenomenal experience (to look back on) I would advice to not visit right before dinner time... 


 The next day was spent in search of temples and waterfall hikes. The temple was nestled in the jungle at the highest point in Thailand. The images were exquisite, the Buddhists know how to decorate a temple. You enter the jungle temple by way of a golden dragon stairwell, the grounds are filled with shrine upon shrine of golden statues and colorful friezes; the entire temple is littered with beautiful flowers and glowing candles it's quite a sight. Our driver then took us to a Thai restaurant a top a waterfall...ya it was awesome. We spent the rest of the day lounging lakeside and the night jumping around Chiang Mai. 


The best part of traveling is meeting new people, everyone is 1) interesting 2) you get to exchange your travel stories and 3) we talk about the anticipation of the mayhem that is the full moon party...because everyone is going.  The next morning Vic and I wake and groggily head to our morning yoga class. The only reason this class was even remotely on our morning radar was because the class was held on a dock waterside. After an exhilarating class we ran back to our room...we were already running late for our excursion. Today's adventure consisted of elephant rides and bamboo drifts...yes it was as spectacular as you are currently imagining. We entered the elephant grounds by way of a rickety old bridge with a sign that read, "warning do not exceed over 10 minutes on the bridge."  

Yet another captivating casual Asian warning...the day began by feeding the elephants. Having the elephants snatch bananas from your hand with their trunks never gets old (I could have done this all day). Next on the agenda was a show, we watched the elephants do little tricks for a bit but the most exciting part was watching a baby elephant paint a picture. They are such magnificent creatures it was quite the spectacle.  After the show we hopped on the elephants for a jungle ride to a village then onto a homemade Thai lunch. After lunch we were shuttled down the river on bamboo rafts. Sooo tribal. We spent the rest of the evening poolside then retired early...tomorrow was a big day, off to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon Party.