Sabbatical #2: Animal Kingdom! Chiang-Mai, Thailand

Besides sitting next to a 400 pound tiger that could rip me in half, there were 2 equally disturbing things before we even set foot near it. First, the only form we had to sign was an insurance waiver from AIG (weren't they the ones that the governement bailed out for making bad bets. . . was this one of them?) Second, the only justification they gave us regarding the safety of spending time with tigers is the fact that they are nocturnal and are "sleepy" during the day. . . .therefore we would be safe (Enter your own Siegfried and Roy joke here). We got to spend about 40 minutes total with baby tiger cubs that were just like little kittens and full grown adult cats that were frightening beautiful creatures. Regarding the safety of this, we were with the trainer who was armed with a 10 inch wood stick (looked like a backscratcher), which most of the time was on the ground because he was snapping photos of us. Totally safe . . . .

Sure . . . . Tigers are cute (especially the cubs) but could they paint pictures? Could they play soccer? Seriously? Elephants that not only paint, but paint pictures that are better than your kids artwork? It was amazing to watch these massive animals pick up a brush with their trunks and start painting pictures of flowers, mountains, etc. We proudly own one of these pieces of art so you can come admire it for yourself when you come over to try our Vietnamese and Thai cooking skills!

Besides having places to play with Tigers and Elephants, Chiang Mai, Thailand is the gateway to the northern moutains of Thailand, so we also went on a mini-safari, mountain biking and white water rafting. We were taken around in this 1950's Range Rover which was quite an adventure in itself on some of the so called "roads". Our river rafting guide was a hoot, his name was "toocrazy" who thoroughly enjoyed his job of taking us down rapids backwards, sideways and anyway to get us wide-eyed while he laughed uncontrollably at us. Along our trek we also met a very nice monk who invited us into his temple to meditate with him. I'm not very good at clearing my mind, but it was nice for us to sit quietly and listen to the birds and circular saw that was running the near background.