Monthly Archives: April 2013

We read conflicting reports on visiting Tiger Kingdom. Some said the tigers are raised from birth by humans so they are sedate and calm around them. Others said that the tigers are drugged because they are extremely sleepy and being the wild animals that they are- they are much too lethargic to be otherwise. I would bet my life on it that these tigers are medicated in some way. Jesse took the kids in to see the tigers while I did some investigating around the premises. People completely laying on the tigers and they are not moving. They did perk up and move around a bit whenever the “trainers” hit them on the nose or ears with a bamboo stick- I guess I would too!
My mom loves baby tiger and lion cubs so Emerson thought this would be really cool if we did it and showed everyone the pictures. They were especially excited to see the newborns- they were only three weeks old. The ones they got to pet were between two and three months old.
I wouldn’t recommend anyone going there because I don’t believe in drugging animals, but I don’t know where they would go. Could they live in the wild? Would they be happier in a zoo? I doubt it.
Tiger Kingdom was buzzing when we got there and continued to pack people in when we were leaving. Their operation didn’t even slow down after a woman from New Zealand was bit badly on the leg by one of the big cats. First hand reports stated that the “trainer” ran out of the enclosure and there wasn’t even a first aid kit on site. Yikes!
The good news is that all went well with us. Yay!

Emerson was clearly not impressed.

Jesse had to get up early one day while we were in Thailand to sort out our visas for India. He was gone for hours! He came back exhausted but successful. You have to have all your t’s crossed and i’s dotted- otherwise you are out of luck! The other picture is of Jesse at the train station in Bangkok arranging an overnight sleeper train to Chiang Mai. (The train smelled so badly of urine that I had to sleep with tissue stuck up my nose, but we got to where we needed to be. I may invest in a nose plug like some swimmers wear. I could have an entirely different blog detailing all the smells I’ve endured while on this trip.)