One Month Left

I can't believe that my adventure in Hong Kong is winding down. Time really does fly when your having fun.

I can now count the weeks I have left on one hand. And they are going to be some crazy weeks with finals, presentations, and papers.

But there are some exciting things coming up to. I'm going to Beijing with my pal Melissa. Yes, I am going to see the Great Wall!!!! My Asia trip will be complete! I still have to go to Ocean Park, Hong Kong's version of Sea World. That's when I'll get my panda fix since I'm not going to make it to Chengdu (too expensive: $300 airfare, $323 to hold a panda WHAT!).

And then, I'll go home.

And I'm actually kind of excited, which is interesting because a month and a half ago I was crying about how I never wanted to go home. But there's a time and season for everything and it's time to return to the US and finish school.

But I still have a month to YOHKO it up!!

So stay tuned for the last leg of HK adventures.

Ciao!

Bucket List: Riding an Elephant

When in Thailand, you ride an elephant.

                             The unspoken traveller's code  

The last leg of my Thailand Spring Break was in Thailand's northern capital, Chiang Mai. A laid-back version of Bangkok surrounded by mountains, Chiang Mai is where backpackers go to chill and have adventures.

And I had adventures. In just one day, I took a bamboo raft down a river, rode on a cart driven by some interesting Asian oxen, and went zip-lining. But the highlight of that day, hands down, was riding an elephant for the first time. 

My first view of an elephant!!!!!

On the elephant!!

Agnes and Kay having quite the adventure on their elephant.

Elvin and I had our own adventure. As we were going along, a guy on the elephant ahead of us dropped one of his flip-flops so the mahout (the elephant trainer/driver) had to disembark the elephant to retrieve. I turned to Elvin and warned him to be careful with his flip flops and not drop them. And what happens? Almost immediately, one of Elvin's flip flops fell to the ground. So our mahout jumped down and fetched Elvin's flip flop. Annoying, but no big deal, right?

The elephant had other ideas. The elephant continued on without its mahout and with us still on its back. And it was moving. And I was having a heart-attack. Because I kind of have a history of animals running away while I'm riding them and I was sure that this was another one of those moments.

A picture of us as our elephant started to run away from the Mahout, courtesy of Agnes Mystek

At last, the mahout caught up with the elephant and everything was good. The elephant even sprayed me with water! Adorable!

On our way back to the elephant camp, the mahout let me sit in the front. It was so exciting!

Scared much?

YEE-HAW!!! 

Lions, and Tigers, and Gingers!

Here the details about that one time I went and played with tigers.

Where did I go?

I went to Tiger Kingdom in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It's actually about 40 minutes outside of Chiang Mai, but just grab a songaew and negotiate a price. I think it was about 100 THB (3 USD) for round trip.

If you can't make it to Chiang Mai, there are two other locations in Bangkok and Phuket.

How much did it cost?

To play with either an adult and teenager, it costs about 450 THB (15 USD). You get about 15-20 minutes in the encounter. To play with a small tiger it's a little more. And to play with a baby tiger it costs about 20 USD. We decided to play with the adults and the small tigers so it cost 825 THB (a little less than 30 USD).

Is it safe?

There is always risk with most things we do in life. After living in Asia, driving a car in Utah really frightens me. It's SO dangerous!! As for playing with tigers, as long as you listen to your guide and have common sense, you will be fine. 

Are the tigers drugged?

No, the tigers are not drugged. We would be petting them and then they would just get up and walk away. They would also play in the pool. They were definitely alert.

 What is there to do when you are done playing with the tigers?
They do not kick you out of the park when your time is up. So we just walked around and watched other people play with tigers. There were a couple of encounters where there weren't any other people. There was one couple who was playing with a tiger through the cage. The guy would raise his hand high in the air, pretending to hold something and the tiger would go on its hind legs to take it. Of course, the guy would pull his hand away. It was fun to watch, but pretty stupid. Something could totally go wrong. We also discovered some lions in the back of the park.

There are other activities at the park. You can run around in one of those human hamster balls. There's a restaurant so you can grab some lunch. But we chose to go get fish pedicures (which is a whole other post).

How long were you there?

We were at Tiger Kingdom for about 2 1/2 hours. 15 minutes of that was buying tickets, 40 minutes of that was playing with the tigers, 30 minutes walking around the park, and about 30 minutes doing the fish pedicure. The time not accounted for was eating ice cream and just hanging out. So really, I think you could do Tiger Kingdom in about 90 minutes.

Recommendation:

You want to play with the baby tigers. I wish I had forked out a few more dollars to do it. Baby tigers are the darn cutest things ever!! Definitely what I will be doing the next time I go. (And there will be a next time!!)

If you have any more questions, just ask below in the comments or check out Tiger Kingdom's website.

Wat the Po?!!

There's nothing like celebrating the resurrection of the Savior by hanging out with Buddha. A little mixed-up? I know. 

But when the group got separated at the Chatuchak Weekend Market, Agnes and I decided that what we really wanted to do that day was go visit Wat Pho (or Po), the really pretty temple next to the Grand Palace that we saw the day before.

So after a ride on the skytrain and a taxi ride reminiscent of Fast and Furious, we arrived at the temple.

Wat Po is one of Bangkok's oldest temples. It is dedicated to the art of relaxing, starting one of the first thai massage schools in Thailand. 

Wat Po is also known for having the most images of Buddha in all of Thailand, over 1000.

Wat Po is also famous for housing the world's largest reclining Buddha, which, at first, didn't seem that cool to me until I saw it in real life. That is one big Buddha!

The cat that just couldn't leave me alone. It just wanted some love. A lot of love.

That one time a baby monk talked to me!!!

What I Ate... Thailand Edition

Thai food has always been one of my favorite cuisines. To be honest, I have so much Thai curry paste in my college food storage that I could eat curry for about 6 months straight. And although I don't eat Thai food everyday, I do eat it pretty frequently.

And then I went to Thailand, the home of Thai cuisine. And while in Thailand, I ate a lot of delicious and, more importantly, cheap food. Seriously, my average meal cost less than 3 USD.

Courtesy of Agnes Mystek