Tiger

So I saw a baby Tiger today... kind of a dream of mine I think... I miss my Suki (for any Russian readers, that's my cat's name (you see in Russian Suki means, 'Bitches'... although yes, I do miss my bitches as well!))... So I went for it even though it was a little expensive... and yes, I considered the big moral issues about human contact with large wild animals such as tigers... I'm not sure if I made the correct moral descision but at least I saw it and can to some extent banish the thought that the cat's are drugged or sedated to allow human contact... they are wild-animals (albeit, hand reared) and so you have to handle with care... they can be unpredictable and I'm sure they could wipe you out with a swift cuff to the face... ... when I first walked up and saw the other people with the tigers they were lying there all limp and I thought, 'Oh Christ, they do sedate them... bloody hell, I've spent all this money on something I'm gonna feel guilty about.' ... but as I was waiting one properly perked up and was being a little scamp (what a lovely word:), they were lively but probably slightly perturbed at their midday nap being disrupted... I also read on the net suggestions that they are not treated that well by the keepers but I don't think so... they weren't being cruel... they were just treating them like (I'm gonna sound stupid here) like cats... they wern't excessivly rough with them if they started getting a bit too playful (coz , let's face it... these baby tigers had bloody big paws... if they grabbed your arm and did that playful nibbling-while-kicking-away-with-their-legs thing you'd be in trouble... I really enjoyed it... and even though it was a little bit expensive (by Thai standards, not English), it was a bit of a dream and was probably the first paid excursion I've done since I left the VodkaTrain tour... To be fair, although I think the tigers are treated ok and not drugged or anything, the issue remains of them being kept tame and controlled and having their valuable midday nap time adulterated by us pesky humans... it was a bloody lovely experience but definatly not an essential thing... I'm going to use a Tony Blair, Iraq war kind of get out about choosing to go and say, 'I made the correct decision based on the evidence I had at the time.'... I'm glad I saw with my own eyes but I guess my concerns about potential overt cruelty distracted me from the basic issue/problem of allowing people to pay for all this contact with such a rare, beautiful and wild creature...

... ... but it left me with a warm glow... this time yesterday I was feeling low and lonely... I was ready to learn violin just so I could sadly emphasise my lonliness with music while I quenched my thurst for human interaction with my own salty tears... ... ... but then this girl from Oz started chatting to me (her name is Messina... what a lovely little name (Football ramble reference))... then along came a German lad she'd met called Sebastian... then my English mate Herve (half-Belgian), we played pool, then checked out the cracking lantern festival which happens each year on the November full-moon... Suddenly my lonliness dissappeared into the night sky like so many paper lanterns... The sky was full of these lanterns... I let two off myself and made a wish each time (as is the custom)... it was really cool and festive atmosphere... people out on the street, with friends and family... it was cool... ... ... but they clearly don't have the same anti-fireworks adverts we have in England... they were going off left, right and centre... it was like a very flamboyant war was going on (you'd have loved it Jay)... those fireworks which go off like a mushroom were exploding only meters away from people, landing in the road among the heavy traffick, or borrowing under water to unleash a huge upward serge of water like someone had just dropped in the worlds biggest pebble... even I started to fill with a little bit of fear (the dog in my hostel literally wet itself because of the sound of bangers near the hostel... the poor confused little scamp)... Then I headed off to meet Martina (one of the Italian girls I met in Koh Chang... she came to Chiang Mai for one night as she was flying to the south from here tomorrow) and a friend of hers (Nora, a french girl of half Morrocan descent) and we had drinks and it was cool... and then today I went to the Tigers and then got befriended by a Canadian girl just now... not so lonely any more:)) ... my line for this life as a lone traveller is that we have lots of friendship-one-night-stands (maybe I've already mentioned this)... you meet people and have an intense, whirlwind friendship (you are more open and willing to speak because you are alone but also together in this strange boat travelling around the world)... but just as you think you may have made a friend for life (which in this whirlwind takes like a day-and-a-half), you go your seperate ways... maybe to meet somewhere else on the circuit but probably not... but it is a great way to interact with people and is only sad when you are tired and you start to wonder where your next friend will come from (often, that friend is sat next to you while you think all these sorry and lonely and neurotic thoughts)...

... My parents now know how much I hate haggeling and so this morning, as I set off to get a Tuk-Tuk to the Tiger place I didn't look forward to negotiating the price for a Tuk-Tuk to pick me up, wait and bring me back... I asked at the hostel how much is a fair and usual price and they said 300 Baht... so I was thinking, 'Ok, ok, Just go with 300, don't mess about, if they take it all good, if they don't they are taking the piss, it's a fair price'... I nervously ambled up to the first tuk-tuk I saw, I asked how much... '150'... I felt compelled to literally bite his hand off then and there... I'm starting to think that if Bangkok is the disease, then Chiang Mai is the cure... it reminded me of a story I heard about Leeds United in their recent period of Champions league success, before they pissed all their money away and went into melt-down... They were signing Seth Johnson (1 England cap, his middle names are 'Art' and 'Maurice'... thank you Wikipedia:) from Derby for 7 million... he was going in with his agent to agree wages... before they walked in to the office his agent said to him, "We're not gonna take a penny less then 20 grand-a-week."... they walked in and Risdale (Leeds Chairman) said, "We'll not pay a penny more then 40 grand-a-week."... que another literally-bite-their-hand-off type situation...

... Tomorrow I go to Pai in the mountains for a couple of days... it's meant to be hippysville and quite cool... then I'll take the slow boat to Laos (I know you're probably thinking, 'What's the slow boat?'... well I'll save that little beauty until next time... what a tease;)

Keep well everyone... I'm going to try and post a couple of Tiger photos up soon:))