Hill Tribes and Baby Tigers

Yesterday was a big day for us. We spent the morning driving up a beautiful mountain to visit a Hilltribe and the highest Wat (temple) in Chaing Mai. The story goes that the white elephant is a sacred animal, so the king sent this elephant out packed with Buddhist relics and everytime the elephant stopped, he built a temple. So throughout Chaing Mai and the mountain, there are random beautiful temples. Where the elephant died the king built the most sacred temple in Chaing Mai, Wat Doi Suthep. 306 steps up to the top, we were sweating by the time we got up there. Spectacular views of the whole city from this mountaintop! We were blessed by a monk. We also found out that the weekday you were born coinsides with a phase of the Buddha's life. Buddha has 9 phases of his life, for instance meditating Buddha, teaching Buddha, resting Buddha, ect... Can you guess which one James is? He knew before the guide even told him. He was born on a Tuesday and corresponding Budda is that of the sleeping (or resting) buddha....:)  I was born on a Sunday, which is the early life of Buddha, where he's learning the steps of meditation (appropriate).
     After that, we were taken to the Tiger Kingdom.. Many people oppose this, as they think they sedate the tigers for poeple to pet them... They do not drug the tigers. Tigers are sedate in the day because they are nocturnal and it's hot. They sleep and get up to eat and play then sleep more.. The Kingdom was set up to help the conservation of the tiger from poachers. Here, they raise tigers among humans and let tourist in the cage with them... I picked the baby tigers....OMG, so cute! We spent 10-15 minutes playing with a baby 2 months old and another a few months older than that..  Again, pictures to come later. We can't get them downloaded here...we've filled up 5 cards already (2gigs each).  And we watched these huge creatures play and frolic. Only thing between the big guys and us was a small chain linked fence....
     The Sunday night Market was last night and boy, do they know how to do a street market here! It just never ended. Started at 4pm-12, and people just up and down the streets selling homemade scarfs and paintings and jewelry and all sorts of things. It's a tradition here that they've done for centuries. It' started way back when the tribes would come down the hills and the chinese would come and the locals would all trade goods. It was, by far, the best market yet! But after a long day of walking, our feet hurt and we HAD to go get a massage.... 1 hour for 5$, AWESOME! Have I said how much I like it here?
   Today is our last day in Chaing Mai. We are headed to Chaing Rai which is just north 3 hours. There we will trek in the mountains and maybe see elephants. The profits there go directly to the tribes, so there is less of a 3rd party profit, and more effort for conservation. There is also a beautiful "White Temple," literally all white, we will go see. We are taking a local bus, so it will be cheap. Then into Laos.. We miss you all!
-C

A note about the Tigers...
I felt uneasy at the notion of spending $20 to go in a cage with a tiger and cuddle with him.  Furthermore, I was concerned about the ethical treatment of these tigers. Also, for the first time in Asia, it made me feel like I was exploiting the culture.  Then I went, and I changed my mind.
1. If I was sitting on the couch in San Jose and someone came to me and said, "For $20 bucks you can pet my tiger for 20 minutes." I would probably pet the tiger.
2. Once I read the literature and say the facilities I realized no sedation of the tigers was needed, that the tigers are cycled to and from the local zoos, and that if they were not in captivity (sadly) they would be poached.
Although I still felt uneasy walking in, standing 3 feet from a 500 lb tiger with nothing but a thin mesh of chain link between us was awesome. I was able to touch the paw of the tiger throught the fencing.  Christina wanted to be with the baby tigers so we didn't go in the cage with the adults, but being so close while they played and lounged around was worth the $20 price of admission. The baby tigers were pretty cute and playful. I considered paying the extra $50 to see a tiger wrestle a local teenager to the death, but I figured that would be taking advantage of the culture.

The night market was huge, we bought too much stuff and will be sending our first package home today with cool stuff in it. The prices are soooooo cheap, I cannot believe it. Once you have nogotiated a price, you may realize you were bargining hard to save 60 cents on a painting that costs $10 and should sell for $80 in the USA.  Crazy.
-James