Tiger encounter

Map loved tigers and lions. Every time when she saw their pictures she would make the roaring sounds. So daddy and mommy thought it would be fun to take her to see live tiger at Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai.

The first thing we noticed when we arrived at the Tiger Kingdom was that there were rarely any local Thais here. Most were foreign tourists. The place was very commercialized. There were multiple computer terminals where you could book the tickets yourselves with the helps of the Tiger Kingdom people.

Tourists inside big tigers' cage

Tourists taking up close pictures with big tigers

The entry fee per person depended on what type of tigers you wanted to be in the cage with. The big ones costed around 400-500 baht. But the baby tigers were most expensive at 600 baht. Mommy thought it was very strange why people wanted to be in a cage with dangerous animals like tigers. We wanted Map to see live tigers which could be seen from the lobby actually. But since we were here already, we thought we might as well checked it out. Children under 15 years old were not allowed to be in the cage with big tigers, so Map had to go into the cage with baby tigers.

Map looking at big tiger

While waiting to get into the cage with baby tigers, Map was looking around at the big tigers' cages. At one point Map nearly became a finger food for a big tiger. Map put her hands into big tigers' cage when nobody looking. Fortunately, daddy caught that in time. Whew!!

Daddy, Map and the baby tiger

Map and baby tiger

Which one is more fierce?

A couple of times, Map tried to kick the baby tigers. Guess she didn't know what they really were.

Hill Tribe Village

After the elephant show, we came to the hill tribe village - Baan Tong Luang Eco-Agriculture Village. We had been warned by our driver - Kun Sawat - that this was not really where the hill tribe people actually lived. A businessmen built a hill tribe village and hired all these hill tribe people to come live here. The hill tribe people lived somewhere further north close to Mae Hong Son province, and tourists had to take a long trip up there. So, this smart businessman decided to bring the hill tribe people to Chiang Mai, so the tourists did not have to trek their way up north. Mommy and Daddy were curious to see the Karen Long-Neck hill tribe, so that was why we came here.

Map and daddy at the hill tribe village

There were 8 hill tribes here in the village - Akha, Hmong (Meo), Lisu (Lisaw), Lahu, Yao, Karen, Karen Long Neck.

The first hill tribe we saw was Akha. Map met a friend name Grace. Grace was born only 8 days before Map. Grace and her family relocated here from where the Akha hill tribe really lived. The businessman paid them to stay here.

With the Akha hill tribe - Daddy, Map, Grace and Grace mommy

With Grace's grandma. This was where they lived now.

Akha hill tribe's cottage

The next hill tribe we saw was Lahu. The Lahu women wore very big earrings. They put these big earrings into the piercing in their earlobes. Over time, the holes in the earlobes were stretched out and they could put bigger earrings. Map noticed that the younger generation women no longer wore the big earrings. One of the young Lahu lady explained that the new generation Lahu women no longer wanted to wear the big earrings because it was difficult for them to blend into the society. Their kids would get teased and made fun of at school had they worn the earrings. So this tradition of wearing earrings were disappearing.

With the Lahu girl and the Lahu Grandma with big earrings

Hill tribe cat

After that we saw Lisu, Yao, Hmong hill tribes.

The Lisu hill tribe lady playing musical instrument

Daddy trying his hunting skill with Hmong crossbow

But what we really wanted to see was the Karen Long-Neck hill tribe, they lived at the end of the village. The Karen Long-Neck girls started to wear the rings around their necks when they turned 4-5 years old and they increased the number of rings they wore as they grew older. Karen Long-Neck hill tribe was the most photographed and most popular in this hill tribe village. And this popularity with tourists might be the reason why there were still a lot of young girls following this tradition of wearing rings around their necks - unlike the Lahu girls who had already abandoned the big earrings wearing tradition in order to assimilate into society.

Map with the Karen Long-Neck girls - the one next to Map had started wearing rings around her neck

With the Karen Long-Neck lady

It was interesting to get to see the Karen Long-Neck hill tribe, but unfortunate that the whole village made us feel like we were visiting human zoo. Map hoped that the businessman treated the hill tribe people nicely.

Chiang Mai - Fun Day with Elephants

The second day in Chiang Mai, Map woke up early to catch an elephant show at Maesa Elephant Camp at 9:40am. When Map arrived, elephants were taking a bath in the river before the show.

Elephants just finished taking a bath

Elephants walking up from the river to the stage area

After the elephant bath, the audience filed into the seats waiting for the show to start.

Audience filling the seats

Map and daddy at our seats

There were around 70 elephants at Maesa Elephant Camp. But the show elephants were relatively young ones - around 10 years old or younger. Elephant's life span was the same as human being's - around 70-80 years. Each elephant had its own mahout - each mahout was responsible for that one particular elephant. Hence, the elephant and its mahout were very close.

Watching the show

The show elephants can do many things like

- Let mahouts up and down

Elephants letting mahouts going down

- Play dead (lie still)

Elephants playing dead

- Put hats on mahouts' heads

- Play harmonica with their trunks

- Dancing

- Play soccer (football)

- Play basketball

An elephant playing basketball

- Throw darts to pop the balloons

- Show how logging is done

- Painting - this is Map's favorite

- Give a massage to mahouts

An elephant giving a massage to a mahout

For painting, it was amazing how these elephants could paint. They were trained by a professional artist for just 3-5 months. Mommy said that no way she could paint like this.

Painting flowers

Painting landscape

After all elephants finished, their paintings were auctioned off to the audience for 2000-3000 baht (70-100 US$). Awesome!

Can you believe an elephant painted this?

All paintings here were painted by elephants

Map and a French boy playing with each other during the show

After the show, all elephants lined up at the edge of the stage area, so that interested audience could feed them. Map and mommy got sugarcane and banana from the vendor - each set is 40 baht (only 1.30 US$) to feed elephants

Map and mommy feeding elephants after the show

After that, we took pictures with elephants. One elephant tried to put a hat on mommy's head and Map got upset by that.

Daddy, mommy and Map wanted to go for elephant ride, but it was so popular that all rides were sold out until 2:30pm - the last ride for the day. So we went to see Long-Neck Hill Tribe and had lunch before came back for the ride.

The elephant who gave us a ride was Ruam-Dao (her name means all-star). Map was asleep on daddy's shoulder for the first half of the ride and only woke up for the second half. Ruam-Dao was 20-years old and had 2 children. She had been with this particular mahout for the last 7 years. The mahout told us how Ruam-Dao ate around 300kg per day. She ate banana, sugarcane, grass, leaves etc. And at night Ruam-Dao slept by herself in the forest. Elephants wouldn't sleep together because they ate a lot in the night. And if they slept together, they would fight each other for the grass. And elephants wouldn't sleep with mahouts either because elephants were afraid of mahouts. If they were with mahouts, they would not sleep all night due to their fear of mahouts (mommy thought that elephants would not sleep because they wanted to play with the mahouts.)

Riding on the back of Ruam-Dao, the elephant

Ruam-Dao took shower twice a day - in the morning before she started working and in the afternoon after she finished working. There was an area in the elephant camp for elephants to take shower - mahouts use a pipe to spray water all over elephants. Rum-Dao had never been on the show. She had always been working elephants. Working elephants were normally around 20 years old and they worked until 60 years old (wow... just like human).

Riding on elephant was a lot of fun. But on the way downhill, it was quite difficult to balance oneself. Fortunately there was a metal bar that was screwed tightly to the seat, Daddy did a great job carrying Map on his back. Mommy could not even carrying a bottle of milk - she nearly lost the grip when Ruam-Dao walked downhill.

Towards the end of the 30-minute ride, Map bought 6 sets of sugarcane and banana for Ruam-Dao. She had a reputation in the elephant camp to be the most fierce towards other elephants when she had food with her. We got to see that.

Bye bye Ruam-Dao

Ruam-Dao going back home after the whole day of working