Chiang Mai/Songkran Part 1

So on Tuesday I escaped from the rain storms and flooding in Surat to get a jump start on my Songkran holiday. To get up to the airport in Surat I had to get a ride on a military truck with about 30 Thai people. On the trip there we saw houses underwater, people swimming in front of their flooded homes, camping on bridges, and beating down the medians to get the water to drain from the higher street. The trip took about an hour and a half and by the time my flight left a grand total of 20 people had made it for our flight. After I got to Chiang Mai I went to the night bazaar to do some shopping

On Wednesday I decided to just relax in my hotel and walk about the city for a little bit.

Thursday was the beginning of my adventure in stupid tourist things. I started the adventure by letting a Tuk-Tuk driver talk me into going out to a long neck village and orchid farm for the afternoon. The long neck village was a little sad because the villagers were basically treated as props to take pictures with (they were also selling things). I wound up buying a bracelet because after the girl clamped it onto my wrist I couldn't get it back off (luckily it is a pretty bracelet and I was able to work it open enough to slide it on and off my wrist). After the village we went to the orchid farm where I took a bunch of pictures of the different types of orchids and bought jewelry made out of orchids and butterfly.

That night I went to the night safari with 2 of the other teachers from Surat. We decided to all pile onto a motorbike 'Thai style' and see if we could find the safari. We got there with now problems...except for a few speed bumps. On the safari we got to see a bunch of different animals. I almost got to pet a zebra and we all got to feed giraffes...those guys have freakishly long tongues!

Friday was another adventure in being a tourist. I started the day by meeting up with my Tuk-Tuk driver again and going out to Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom was awesome! I got to play with 3-4 month old tigers and pet some of the bigger (almost 2 yrs old) ones. The tigers were beautiful...sadly the big ones were pretty much all sleeping...but they do tend to be slightly nocturnal. After playing with the tigers and then watching some of the others ones I went to an elephant camp/show. The show was a little weird, dancing and playing kazoos, but watching the elephants paint was interesting. Then I went to a snake show which was basically 3 crazy Thai guys playing with cobras and non-poisonous biting snakes. The best part of the show was when they threw the amazing jumping snake...or piece rope at the group of tourists next to me which caused them all to jump and shriek.

This week is the Songkran festival/water war :)

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