Night Safari!

Over the weekend we met Jane and Erica in Chiang Mai because it was our last weekend all together before they go home! So sad :-( It is also Erica's birthday soon so we decided to splurge and stay at a real hotel! It was SO nice. It probably wasn't that nice compared to America, by American standards it was a 2 star hotel but to us it was luxurious! It had a soft bed, towels, blankets, A/C, a nice pool, an actual lobby, a concierge, and a complimentary breakfast! It was so nice! We usually stay at guesthouses that are Asia's version of hostels.  They are $3-4 a night and you get a mattress and a shared bathroom, which is usually all we need.  It was nice to stay somewhere so nice, we didn't feel like we belonged there!

Erica had been wanting to do the Chiang Mai Night Safari since our first visit so we went on Saturday evening after a day of shopping and relaxing at the pool! It was pretty interesting! Before we boarded our tram we watched some people feeding these weird fish from South America, they were huge and would just be sitting there and look like they didn't do anything when all of a sudden they would jump out of the water at the bait and scare the bejeezus out of us! I would not want to find one of them in the wild...

There was a North side and a South side, one zone had the predators and the other the prey! I bought a basket of bananas and carrots to feed to the animals along the way and we were off!

In our tram!

There were many animals wandering around and then some animals in enclosures.  The deer, impala, buffalo sort of animals were roaming around and would walk up to the tram and snatch our carrots and bananas away from us. A wild boar came out of nowhere and almost chomped my hand off...I didn't give my carrots away as freely after that.  My favorite was feeding the giraffes! They walked right up to the tram and stuck their heads in and spit their tongues out at us. I put a banana on one and it rolled it right in.  Their tongues were super long and scratchy, loved it! I also loved the zebras, they were beautiful, but we couldn't really feed them, we were only able to throw the carrots to them because they chomp fingers off...great! The guide told us just last week some guy lost his fingers to a zebra, and this place still isn't shut down? So Thai. 

Helloooo giraffe!

We saw the usual suspects you see at a zoo, but it felt very much like jurassic park! We had to keep driving through sterilization baths and different gates to get to different zones.  It was nighttime, obviously, so we would be driving seemingly aimlessly and then they would shine spotlights on different enclosures.  It was pretty silly sometimes. At one point the guide told us that the kangaroos were not from Australia because they wouldn't give them any, but some people from Texas were more than willing to! 555

At the end of the tram tour there was an optional walk around a lake that was supposed to have more animal, it was dark and late at this point and we were pretty wary...There was no lighting to help you on your way, of course, and we were not sure what we were supposed to be looking for.  Luckily, our phones had flashlights on them and some people told us it was worth it to walk around so we kept trekking.  We saw a leopard and a bengal tiger and some lemurs on an island. It was really fun but so random! 

The scary but fun walking trail

This week at school we are preparing for Sports Day! This means we only have classes in the morning and in the afternoons the kids are running and practicing cheers.  There are different teams and everyone is very excited! Mel and I are on the green team, not that we know what that means...555 Nooters told me yesterday to "prepare my green suit." Uhmmmmm ok? Next Tuesday, there will be a parade and everyone will compete at our Phrae stadium. It should be a spectacle to behold!