Thailand- Tanja - Tigers

It seems that a disproportionate amount of my posting this month has involved cats, especially considering the fact that I'm admittedly not a cat lover. However, in the course of this past week of Eid break in Thailand, spent with my dear friend Tanja Cesh, the only interesting photos I managed to snap were of cats, in a variety of sizes.

The first feline encounter involved these tiny newborns discovered in the garden of my host-mother's house in Mae Rim, Chiang Mai. The mom cat was no where to be seen, but the yapping dog (whom I remembered well from 3 years ago) drew our attention to these two little creatures. They were quite cute.

Our next Thai cats were a bit larger. On every song taew ride (a pick-up truck with two opposite-facing benches in the rear bed), we had seen ads for the "Tiger Kingdom" - a recent addition to the array of Chiang Mai animal theme parks, which I honestly find rather sad and disturbing. The tiger place hadn't existed when I was here as a student in '07. Tanja and I admitted that, despite the very obvious tourist-trap nature of it, the chance to touch tigers was probably a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing.

So with my host mother and a Thai friend we showed up, paid our $10, and hung out with tigers - yes, inside their kingdom. I won't tell you about the stories I heard later that evening at a guesthouse, about visitors who have been mauled at this very spot, and how the park will deny it if you ask... Oh Thailand.

However, praise God we were all spared by our large, sharp-toothed (and handsome!) friends. Really, it just felt like were were hanging out with really big, less-crazy versions of Monkey (our little Chittagong cat). This one below had assumed the exact position of many living-room cats I've known.
Maybe I'll edit my earlier comment about not being a cat lover. Big cats are a different entity. Just look at this one below. Glorious.
I think I've had a respectful admiration and kindred affection for tigers since learning as a child that I was born in the "Year of the Tiger" - according to the Chinese lunar calendar. Actually 2010 brought us back into the year of the tiger, so perhaps this visit was appropriately timed.

During my personal time with the tiger (during which one of the trainers stands near with only a little stick for protection), I went ahead and did the hokey pose that the white people on the Tiger Kingdom's many posters display...

(I didn't feel as relaxed as I look)

Tanja got the ticket to play with the youngest tigers - Lulu and Lola. This one below was chewing on a toy Simba.

All in all, it was a fun and worthy excursion. I liked the effect of the photo below - taken by one of the trainers of the adolescent tigers - where it looks like the tigers are free and we're the ones in the cage. A potentially philosophical musing...

(A final cat note: Monkey is pregnant. Her 9-story leap accomplished the instinctual task. Monkey has shamed us. We're sending her to the village next week to live with our maid's sister.)