Hanoi, Vietnam

Mae Sa Elephant Camp

We went to Mae Sa Elephant Camp to ride try an elephant ride and see the show. Elephant used to be used to help cultivate the land in Thailand, among other things, but now they are mainly used for tourism or left alone to roam in nature at conservatories. After a couple months in the country we still hadn't taken the obligatory elephant ride so we headed up north a half hour to the countryside to check out the camp. We got to see a nursery, the trainers giving the them a bath (they loved it- playing around and splashing each other), and a show. Who knew elephants were so coordinated? The ride was fun and the scenery was gorgeous!

Tiger Kingdom; Mae Sa, Thailand

One of our last days in Chaing Mai, Chris and I went to the Tiger Kingdom. We had seen signs all over town advertising it, but were a but sceptical it. We drove by it on our way home from doing an elephant ride in Mae Sa and decided to stop in.

They allow you to chose which age tiger you would like to visit in its cage. We chose the youngest age, 4 months, paid the fee and went inside the entrance. When we got inside and were waiting for our turn to visit the cub, we could watch other tourists in the cage with the older tigers.

The tigers were asleep, so much so that the park employee that went in the cage with the patrons had to poke and provolk the tiger just to get it to open its eyes for a picture! We felt so uncomfortable and scammed; the tigers seemed drugged. We tried to get our money back but of course there were no refunds.

Feeling a bit duped into supporting this operation, we asked the employees about why the tigers were all so lethargic. They explained that this was normal tiger behavior; they just sleep up to 80% of the time. They said the tigers had been handled by humans since birth and were used to it.

Soon it was our turn to see the little cub and we went into a nursery, washed our hands, and got to pet him for our ten minutes. It is so adorable! The trainors put him in my lap and I got to hold his not-so -little paw in my hand. We could touch his paws and tummy but could not go near his face. At one point, Chris touched him a bit soflty and the cub jumped up to see what was on him! We both jumped out of our skin! It wmade me nervous to take my eyes off him to take a pitcture!as a it scarey to look up to take a picture. All in all, we left there feeling excited to have that once in a lifetime experience, but still felt a bit of guilt.