Liars and Tigers and Boars, oh my!

8/17/11
We just got back from Bangkok last night. And really, we just got back to Yeosu today. So this is incredibly early for me to be even thinking about a post, even if I don't get to finish it tonight. But this trip was so incredibly amazing, I can't wait to start deciding which pictures to post.

We weren't planning to go on anymore trips for a while. Except for home leave. We've already been everywhere we had planned, and we are actually trying to save for our next home, despite how it may seem. But when we got back from our July home leave, we found out that we had some summer holidays, and we needed to use 'em or lose 'em. A little time on the Continental website, and I had figured out flights we could book with all the miles we've earned over the last year or so.

So off to Bangkok we went, with a quick night in Seoul on the way. We were flying Thai Air because they're Star Alliance and had flights available to use our mileage on the dates we needed. It was direct on the way, and economy, but the only seats available on the way back were business class. Fortunately, it still didn't take that many miles, and we had enough. We'd flown Thai Air last year to Taipei, and I don't remember it being particularly spectacular. So this time, when we had individual televisions with a really good selection of shows and movies, pretty good food (they served us a full meal and then sandwiches later on a 5-1/2 hour flight), and ice in the drinks, I was pretty impressed. I mean, I know that may not sound like much to you, but ice in the drinks on an Asian airline...  I'm tired of drinking tepid soft drinks on planes. I miss ice. And icees and sno cones and fountain drinks at gas stations and Sonic Happy Hour and... Well, you get the idea. Anyway, trust me, it's a big deal.

So we got to Bangkok mid-afternoon. And let's just say the airport was not as impressive as their major airline. But our baggage arrived just fine, and we found our way to the airport train into town. They had an express train that only took 17 minutes, which was nice. We rode the train in, transferred to the BTS line, which is their above ground metro system, and drug our suitcases down a few dirty streets with broken sidewalks to our hotel. But it was pretty close to the station, and it was really nice. The location turned out to be pretty convenient. When we checked in, we were informed we'd been upgraded to a "Royal Club" room, which was pretty big and very nice. We had access to the lounge, with a variety of beverages all day and cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the evenings, breakfast daily in our choice of 3 restaurants or the lounge, and 30% off dinner and lunch at four of the hotel restaurants for the duration of our stay.

9/2/11
So much for getting this posted quickly...  Oh well, I tried, right?  That should be worth something.

Anyway, where did I leave off?  Oh, yeah...

The first day was pretty simple.  We walked to a small temple nearby the hotel, and had a late afternoon snack at Central World, a HUMONGOUS mall right next to the temple. 

We had looked up a few things to see in Bangkok, but we also wanted to relax.  Our schedule has gotten pretty hectic lately.  Blake's pilot plant is being built right now, and he's preparing to run a project for a customer and to commission the new plant.  But I have to say a huge thanks to Claude Younger, a Sunday school teacher I had in high school.  He noticed a facebook post I had made that mentioned Bangkok.  And he gave some good suggestions.  GREAT suggestions, actually.

Because the experience we had on this trip was truly one of the most amazing in my life!  If you're on facebook, you might have already seen the couple pics I've posted.  Or the several that Blake has.  But trust me, pictures cannot even begin to show you how awesome Tiger Temple was.

This temple is in a rural area about 2 1/2 hours outside of Bangkok (ex traffic).  Having learned our lesson from the Great Wall in Beijing, we actually booked a tour online ahead of time.  We got picked up by a driver our second day in Bangkok at 5:00am.  We rode about 2 hours to a small town near the temple, where our guide met up with us.  After a quick stop at 7-11 to pick up food to take to the monks and a coffee for our tour guide, we made our way another 30-45 minutes to the temple.

We spent about 4 hours at Tiger Temple.  I wish you could all do this some time in your lives!  It was UNBELIEVABLY AMAZING!  I must admit, I was nervous leading up to the actual day.  I mean, tigers are huge, powerful creatures with dangerous, carnivorous instincts.  But we'd read a lot of reviews, and we felt like it was a reasonably safe adventure.  Outside of our usually risk averse comfort zone, perhaps, but it was such an awesome, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that we thought it worth the risk.  Even though the site manager at work teased us before we left that we should have warned him sooner so he could have posted our soon-to-be job openings already.

Ok, so enough with the rambling, here are the long-awaited pictures.  I wish I could post them all, but here are some of my favorites.

Of course I made friends with their puppy dog.  She was a sweetie, and I shared my blueberry muffin with her.  And then there was Priscilla the goat.  Who tried to share everyone's breakfast.

They also had wild boars and ponies.  I love how the baby boars look like little brown watermelons with legs.

First we gave breakfast to the monks.  They're in the burnt orange robes.  The guys in the burgundy shirts are the workers for the temple.  They work with the tigers and the people who come to see them.

Then we got to see the baby tigers!
We got to bottle feed one that was a little older.  Ours was very messy!

And just pet and love on the two little guys that were just a couple weeks old.

Ok, tell me that precious baby is not the cutest thing you have ever seen?

And we could pet and take pictures with some of the adolescent tigers.

Then we got to walk the medium-sized ones over to a play area.

This was our buddy.  He did really well.  At first.  He didn't lie down or refuse to walk.  In fact, he was the leader of the pack, so to speak.

But when he saw some of the wild boars, he got a little excited.  And he wasn't too happy that we wouldn't let him chase them.

And after that, the swinging shoe laces when Blake walked in front of him were just a little too tempting.

Poor Blake.  It all happened so quickly.
But he was ok.  I think it scared us all more than anything.  But fortunately, the tiger was just playing, and he didn't really bite hard.  And now Blake can say he's been bitten by a tiger.  C'mon - how many people can say that?

Ok, that's enough for tonight.  I'll try to post the rest tomorrow.  But you know me.  I wouldn't hold my breath.