Northern Thailand

It seemed safe to touch the giant beast as it rested outside its fortified cage. The Thai workers said it was alright, though I briefly hesitated to get down and pet the fully-grown tiger. In the back of my mind I was waiting for it to take a chunk out of me.

A few seconds and a deep breath later, I sat beside the tiger as one worker snapped a photo. He then told me to put my head on his stomach as if I were hugging the predator. I gave him a strange look but did what he said. Suddenly, the tiger moved its paws and I jumped away. Luckily, he was just stretching.

All in all, it was quite an experience at Tiger Kingdom, just outside of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. For only $6, you can interact with adult tigers as well as young cubs for 20 minutes. Down the road from the kingdom, I sat front row to one of Thailand’s famous shows at a snake farm. There, a pair of Thai men teased deadly cobras and let tourists pose with a huge boa.

I arrived in Chiang Mai at the right time during the country’s Loy Kratong festival, which celebrates the end of the monsoon season. The best way for me to describe the festival is that it’s like New Year’s Eve, July 4th and Christmas all rolled together. For about three days, fireworks echo and spray into the air while revelers give offerings to the river and food vendors fill the streets. Perhaps the most amazing sight was the thousands of oriental lanterns that floated into the night sky. The lantern symbolizes one person’s bad luck as it floats into the sky. However, if the lantern fails to fly away, the bad luck stays put.

Following the festival, I went on a one-day trek into the rolling hills near Chiang Mai. Our first stop was white-water rafting along a rocky river. There were a few scary moments as one of our rowers fell into the water.

Next stop was the elephant farm. I sat on an uncomfortable seat with an Australian tourist as we rode a huge elephant across a river and uneven terrain. Elephants also ate bananas from my hands with their salivating trunks.

After a 20-minute elephant trek and a calming bamboo raft ride, our group visited some intriguing people. The area is full of hill tribes who live without the stuff we take for granted, like cable TV. There are roughly 800,000 mountain people in 3,500 tribes. Even as urbanization devours the surrounding area, most of these tribes still live by long-lived traditions.

Originally from Burma, the long-neck women of the Padaung tribe who left the corrupt country to escape persecution are the most popular mountain people to visit. At the age of six, women of the tribe begin to place brass rings around their necks until they turn 16. The pressure of 11 pounds of brass eventually crushes their collarbones and ribs, which gives them the long neck appearance. It was sort of a human zoo as us tourists took photos of them. They didn’t mind as long as they got money.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. Thus far, the city is the best that I’ve been to on this trip. A river slices through its center and forest-covered hills, with its hidden Buddhist temples, flank the west side of the city. I rented a scooter and maneuvered through traffic jams to visit many of the sites. The city is easily worth a week or two to explore.

Before heading up north, I stopped in dirty and polluted Bangkok. I only spent a few days and wasn’t able to venture out too much. The best site that I came across was the massive reclining Buddha inside Wat Pho temple. I’ve seen many Buddha statues, but this was the biggest. Each one of its toes was as big as my head!

The funniest thing to happen in Bangkok was when I ventured into a night market where there were a collection of lively bars. As I strolled past vendors, a Thai man grabbed my arm and persuaded me to go upstairs to see a “live show.” I curiously crept up the stairs and as I turned around a corner, I was in front of three nude Thai girls on a small stage.

Two of them immediately greeted me with “helloooo sirrrr” while the third bent over and, no kidding, blew a bicycle horn from her talented vagina. As soon as I heard the horn, I blushed and quickly ran downstairs giggling like a schoolgirl. Maybe some other day I’ll be brave enough to see this “show.”