Day 32 - Tiger Kingdom, Long Neck Village, and Cobras

Today we didn't have an official tour booked and decided to get a tuk tuk to take us around to some of the local sights around Chiang Mai. We got to sleep in and didn't leave the hotel till around 10 when our driver picked us up. The first stop we wanted to go to was tiger kingdom. It was around a 30 minute tuk tuk ride to get there (there was still lots of traffic due to the festival). The tiger kingdom is basically a petting zoo for tigers! When we arrived we had to choose what size of tiger we wanted to pet, there were 4 options big, medium, small, and smallest. The smallest cost the most and had a huge wait so we opted for the second smallest since they were still pretty cute. The wait for our tigers was about 40 minutes so we decided to walk around and see some of the other tigers (it was a relatively small area). 

- White Tiger (Couldn't pet these)

- The Baby Tigers! :) So cute!

It was really cool to see all of the tigers. Once our number was called we got to go into the cage! The tigers were relatively docile and didn't move too much (they say they don't drug them but it sort of seemed like they were). Anyway there were around 6 small tigers in the cage that you got to pet, they were all really cute and really soft and fluffy haha 

- Tiger Chillin on a Lo

- Cuddling with The Tigers

- Belly Rub!

The whole thing lasted around 15-20 minutes. Basically they rotated people through the different tigers so you could take pictures. It was sort of expensive so I probably wouldn't do it again but it was definitely a fun and unique experience!

Once we finished we got back into the tuk tuk and headed to the next stop, the Karen long neck village. You may have heard of this tribe before but if not they are know as the giraffe people. They are refugees from Myanmar (previously Burma) and what they do is put heavy brass rings around their necks which pushes their collar bones down and gives them the appearance of having a really long neck. 

- One of the Long neck People

The lady in the above picture was only 23! The village itself is really small (maybe 3 blocks of huts) and basically they just try to sell you the normal junk. If you're wondering, the reason they put the brass rings on is because it is seen as beautiful, the longer your neck the more beautiful you are. It's so weird! It's sort of sad because they start putting the rings in when they are very young so they aren't really old enough to understand all tr problems and limitations of doing it. 

- Really Long Neck!

We stayed in the village for about a half hour or so since there wasn't too much to do there. Once we finished we met back up with our tuk tuk driver. 

The next place we stopped at was the Cobra farm! All of these places are close to each other so it was never more than a 5 minute ride. The snake farm had tons of different snakes. It was a pretty small area so they were all really close, it was really cool to see. They also had a few other animals like alligators, bunnies, and birds there. After walking around we got seated for the snake show!

- The Snake Farm

The sign above me says "If there is any danger, we will not be responsible" it was very reassuring haha. Of course I say in the front row which was only a few feet from the stage area. The show was really cool and the guy commentating was hilarious! They had some cobras, pythons and a few others that I can't remember. It was really cool though and the snake trainers were fearless. 

- Cobra On My Neck

- The guy kissed the snake like 10 times!

It was a really cool show that lasted 20 minutes or so. Afterwards we got back in the tuk tuk and decided to check out the shooting range since it was really close. It turned out to be really expensive and they didn't even have any cool guns so we decided just to head back to the hotel. Once we got back to the hotel we had some lunch, I had the phad Thai again which was delicious. After eating I took about an hour nap in the room and then did some skyping until dinner time. We decided to go to a restaurant down near the festival was. Little did we know that there was a Sunday market and since it was the final day of the festival the streets were packed!  The market was set up on the street and was literally a mile long and packed with people!

- Can't even see the end of the market

It was pretty incredible how many people were there. It took us almost an hour to get down to the main area where we wanted to eat. Before we ate we went through some tshirt stalls and I ended up getting two more tshirts, I'm obsessed with them! They're so comfy! I think I have 11 shirts more than I started with now haha (not all of then are for me though!). We also got some Thai iced tea and watched as there were some fireworks for the final day of the festival. 

- Fireworks

Once we finished our teas we found a nearby place to eat dinner, I wasn't very hungry so I got the club sandwhich that was pretty good. After dinner we headed back to the hotel on a different street that was much less crowed. However I stopped back at the market quickly to pick up a hilarious gift I found for Rachel. I got back to the hotel a little after 10 and got to skype my grandparents back home which was really nice. Tomorrow we don't have much planned and we leave for Phuket at night.