TRAVIS IS HERE!

Travis arrived last evening. He had just wrapped up his study program and was tired and wanting to take it easy. After a shower to rinse off the air travel and long day, we headed out to grab some dinner. A local food spot I’ve been keeping my eye on for it to open was finally open so we stopped in and had some delicious food. We took a brief walk around Chiang Mai before returning to the apartment where Travis lasted but a few minutes before heading to bed. I finished my work shift and headed to bed a few hours later.

Today we headed out to see Chiang Mai. We had breakfast/brunch at one of my favorite spots, took a ride on the scooter before having to return it from the person I rented from this afternoon. On our way around the outer belt around Old Town we were flagged over by a police check point, asked to show our license, proven to NOT have an international driving license, and fined 400 baht. 🙁 When I showed it to Jack the guy I borrowed the Scooter from he informed us, 300 baht will go to the government, 100 baht will go to the police officer who flagged us over—commission. Jack laughed and recommended we keep the ticket as souvenir—”frame, put on wall!” I may just do that. Will be a funny reminder and story to tell. Also a good to know—next time, get an international drivers card.

Not letting our spirits be crushed we hoped a red truck and headed off to the Chaing Mai Zoo! Overall, much better zoo than Bangkok. Not always comfortable by American standards, but it was a nice zoo. The elephant enclosure was much improved from Bangkok. The monkey enclosures were sad, but overall there were some really great features. The locals consider this a riding Zoo. It sits on 200 acres, and they say that is to much to walk. Its definitely hilly, but perfectly walkable. The layout was great, there were some incredibly shocking experiences, including the ability to hand feed Hippos! You could with longer arms totally grab onto the tooth of a hippo-freaking-potamas! (see the photos! crazy!)

There was an incredible bird enclosure that was massive, had steps that lead steeply up into the canopy where you could see some beautiful birds. I got some really great photos of a few birds eating. I was close enough I could reach out and touch them. It was amazing. Also in the park, there was elephant feeding and giraffe feeding, a Panda Exhibit, a Polar House—which was basically a large cooler with an ice ramp that you could ride an inner-tube down. The temperature was -0.7 centigrade (about 30 degrees F) they gave you a winter jacket to wear 😀 It was a little entertaining watching the locals freezing where for Trav and I, even in shorts, it felt a bit like a typical New England December day. However, I didn’t stay long. I didn’t travel all the way across the world to a tropical zone to be in snow.

While we were walking near the lion enclosures we had the pleasure to hear a male lion and bengal tiger calling to one another. I’ve never heard a lion’s roar and my god it was awesome. They were simply chattering back and forth making short glottal sounds with a few longer tone roars that you could feel echo in the marrow of your bones. It was really something. Travis and I joked they were talking about which take out to order in. We both agreed they were looking for something exotic: european or american perhaps.

Funny enough it was the big cats enclosures that were completely inaccessible to the public. They were separated by a massive, deep moat preventing anyone from getting anywhere near the cats. Probably wise, but interesting given that the hippos, an equally as vicious animal was within touching range.

The zoo also features an aquarium with an underwater glass tunnel to walk through. What made this one a little different was that the tunnel was under fresh water, so all the fish you could see were freshwater fish. Most of the time they do these water tunnels under salt water enclosures, so it was great to see new species of fish that often get overlooked for the more exotic salt-water species.

Overall, it was a very pleasant couple of hours walking around the Zoo taking tons of photos. The entire time we were walking around the zoo what kept playing in my head was music from Jurassic Park. There were so many things, the oversized tropical plants, a monorail system that was broken, and distance between each of the enclosures. All these led to this feeling of being in the Jurassic parks in the films.

After the zoo, we stopped by an out-door market near Chiang Mai University, had some sushi and purchased two t-shirts before returning to the apartment so I could start my workday.

Tomorrow will be visiting a friend of my friend Jack’s to talk about booking some tours to the Elephant Jungle Sanctuary, canopy zip line tour, and maybe a visit to the Tiger Park, booking travel to Cambodia for Saturday, taking a journey up the mountain to the temple there, and then visiting a place for a drink/dance to celebrate the closure of the Chiang Mai adventures.

Up next: Siam Reap, Cambodia to see Ankor Wat, then onto Phuket for sun, beach, ocean, and Yoga.