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.