Okay, so i've not posted in quite a while! That was mainly because no developments were made as far as my tattoos and trip plans were concerned, but considering i have now arrived in Melbourne, Australia, i think i have a bit of catching up to do!
So first of all, i had my consultation with Rachel Mccarthy from Modern Body Art in Birmingham. She was lovely and sketched me up some great designs for my foot tattoos. Sadly she was booked up til July and as i was leaving for Thailand at the end of June, i couldn't book in with her til i'm back. So thats now booked in for November 5th and i'm super excited for that! :D
As aforementioned, i am now in Australia, so i guess the next thing to mention would be Thailand! I spent 3days and 3nights in Bangkok which were amazing. The first night i got there, i was knackered but didn't want to just crash out and waste a perfectly good evening, so i went to Siam Paragon, which is like one out of a group of huge shopping centres. It's weird as the area, especially at night is quite dark and dingy, and then you go inside the Paragon and its all bright and modern. Here are some photos:
Then when i finally did go back to my hotel, before i crashed out i managed to find the engery to take some photos. I stayed at the Amari Atrium, which was very nice indeed :)
I also had a pretty cool view.
The next day i had booked up to go to Erawan National Park, Tiger Temple and Elephant Village. We ended up stopping on the way to see the Bridge over the River Kwai which was pretty cool and my guide was showing me on this big brass map where the bridge goes and the construction that they've been working on to extend the border up by Burma. She was saying that the original bridge is the rounded parts and the middle part thats square was the bit that had to be replaced after it was bombed during a war...she never said which one but i think it was the war between Thailand and Burma, as she mentioned that one earlier during the day. The area around the Bridge over the River Kwai is beautiful and you could see a chinese style temple on the other side of the river too. We also saw some 'monks in training' walking and doing various things on the bridge. Interestingly, and completely unknown to me, you have to be 20 years old before you can officially be a monk. So the 'monks' we saw on the bridge, who were still young children were still in the training stages before official monk-hood.
So as i said, the next stop was Erawan National Park. Erawan National Park is famous for its 7-tier'ed waterfall, which is set in a beautiful dense-forest setting. We only made it to the 5 tier however, as it was getting late and we had to be at Tiger Temple by a certain time. I hike up the different levels was challenging at times, as i'm ridiculously unfit and because i didn't know we would hiking through a forest, over rough terrain, so i wore a pair of trainers :/ All of the tiers and the surrounding areas were immensely beautiful and i'd love to go back one day and go on a proper trek through the forest.
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Tier 5
We saw a few cool animals on the hike, including a horned spider, which is possibly the strangest thing i've ever seen.
A Golden Orb Weaver Spider. Whilst she doesn't look particularly big in this photo, she was about 4/5 inches long, and i'm told thats not fully grown!
A cool skink. It was just sat on a rock and i got really close to it without it running away. It was really pretty and had a ton of colours on it, not that this photo really does it justice.
Once we had hiked back through the bamboo Forest, we headed over to tiger temple. Not long after arriving it started pissing it down, i mean it is monsoon season in Thailand right now, so thats to be expected i guess. Luckily it stopped not long after we got there, so we didn't get wet on our way through the grounds. First thing you notice when you get inside the compound is that there are random animals; as in, animals of the non-tiger variety roaming around the outskirts. There were wild pigs, peacocks, deer, cattle and even water buffalo, who were quite happily chilling in the watering hole they have there.
We then carried on walking up this hill and went past a Asiatic Black Bear enclosure. I can't remember the males name but the female was called Bam Bam. I was also told that the male is constantly trying to get his leg over but that Bam Bam is having none of it and is always swiping at him with her big paws. Gutted. It was raining again at this point, i mean properly raining, so the male was curled up in the entrance of their cave and Bam Bam was sat in a tree. So heres the best picture i could get of her.
After walking further up the path, we met one of my guides friends. He then took me through some gates and into a separate paddock area that is closed off to the general public. We then went into this concreted area where there were six 1 month old tigers cubs. They were the cutest things i have ever seen, and whilst at first they seemed too interested in everyone else to even come and have a look at me, then soon became curious and were jumping all over me.
Having a nap.
Okay, i have no idea why the last 3 pictures changed angles, but i can't seem to flip then back the right way so they shall have to stay like that for now.
After we'd had a play, we started bottle feeding them. At first they didn't seem really interested and just wanted to sleep and play but as soon as they realised, they were more than happy to start suckling. 3 of them were all trying to fight over my bottle at one point, despite there being other people with free bottles. I must just have the magic touch haha!
Not long after the tiger cubs had been fed, it started to rain really heavy again. Now i know tigers love water but i had no idea the mere presence of rain, despite being inside, got them all hyped up. It was like the rain started and all the older tigers in other enclosures started to wake up, play fight and roar, and the cubs got tons more active, almost instantly, too. It was kinda crazy. Once we'd played a bit longer, and they'd bitten my shoulder, the back of my neck, my dress, my feet, my boob, my cardigan and executed a full on attack on my bag, i left and went back out into the main compound. Luckily not long after i got out there, it brightened up again, so i didn't get too soaked. I then met back up with my guide and we went over to this 7 month old tiger that was sat with a monk under a tree. It was so beautiful and was sat really calmly with the monk.
Later we went into what is called 'The Canyon.' This is where volunteers lead tourists around to have photos taken with several tigers of different ages. Whilst most of them were napping, some of them were awake and interested in what was going on. Whilst it wasn't fun being paraded around quickly and literally having photos taken with these tigers without being able to properly interact with them, it was good they didn't have people fussing with them all the time. Plus, they only took a group of people to certain tigers at certain times to make sure they all got a rest. It was also good they all had water and most of them had nice umbrellas to get shade under.
After i'd seen all of the big cats i could in the canyon, we headed back to the van to head on to Elephant Village.
The inside of elephant village is pretty much a big hut thats all wooden and open. It was pretty and had nice modern toilet facilities, which was a plus! After i got changed into my swim suit (as i knew i was going into the river with the elephant), i walked out onto the deck which turned out to be a platform. There were handlers there waiting with an elephant underneath this platform who told me to get onto the elephants neck. Whilst this was a pretty daunting thing anyway, i was pretty terrified when i realised there was about a 2 foot drop before you reached the elephant and then god knows how any feet below the elephant to the ground! I luckily made it to the elephants neck without plunging to my death and we proceeded for a walk. The whole experience was pretty frightening, simply due to being so high and feeling quite unsteady at times. It was an incredible experience though. The worst part however, was when we had to go down a STEEP, MUD HILL to get to the river. This was really scary and i was holding on for dear life.
After making it down in one piece, we went into the river, well i say we went into the river, Sandy's trainer had to talk her into the river as she couldn't really be bothered. Her trainer also felt the need to make a joke about watching out for crocodiles, without realising that i was a zoologist in training, who already knew there couldn't be crocodiles in that water....partly because salties have been extinct in Thailand for years but mostly because the water was fast moving, which crocodilians don't like!
After making it into the water, me and Sandy had a play and i brushed her. She also felt the need to keep squirting water over her shoulders and into my face....charming! :P
Giving Sandy a brush
Sandy blowing water in my face.
Me and Sandy's handler giving her a rub down and a brush.
After being in the water i don't know how long, it started to piss it down again. As the weather was getting quite bad and Sandy was heading towards the river's edge, we decided to call it a day. So we proceeded back up towards elephant village, luckily up a different slope....although we didn't really get very far as Sandy decided she wanted to stop and at every plant and bush she saw. After coaxing her back up to the top and walking past several happy elephants having an afternoon snack, we got back to the dreaded platform. This time i had to try and get to the platform that was 2 foot above me, when i'm only 5'3 and very high off the ground. Add into the mix that i was wet and it was raining and i wasn't very confident i was going to make it without falling off and killing myself. Two men then came over and told me to put my feet on the platform, i was just like "i can't reach that..." So i pulled my legs up so that i was kind of kneeling on Sandy's back and then they both reached out their hands. I had to put my feet up on the platform whilst they pulled me up. Whilst i doubt i am not the biggest person thats ever needed a helping hand, i was still terrified they were going to let go of my wet, slippery arms and drop me to my death haha! I am clearly alive after making it to the platform but that was certainly an un-nerving experience.
After being greeted inside with a souvenir photograph in an elephant village card, a bottle of water and probably the best water melon i've ever tasted in my life. We took the long, 3 1/2 hour drive back to my hotel.
Despite being incredibly tired once i got back, i decided to spend my last night (or so i thought) by going to Patpong Night Market.
I spent quite a lot of baht there and had to go to the ATM twice for being silly and not calculating how far the money would actually go before withdrawing it and then i bought some bits and pieces including a small laughing buddah, a small elephant, a buddah face in a mask-like shape and 2 wooden boxes that have elephants carved onto them.
The next day, i stupidly mixed up with Thursday and went and checked out. After have a panic attack when my transfer driver never showed up to take me to the airport, i realised i wasn't leaving until tomorrow night and had to re-check in. They then put me in a different room, with some equally nice but different views.
On my actual last day, i decided to go to The Grand Palace otherwise known as . When i arrived, wearing leggings, shorts, a t-shirt and a cardigan, i thought i was pretty covered. Considering you're not allowed to show any skin apart from your face, a little above the ankle downwards and a little above your elbow down to your finger tips but apparently my outfit, despite being allowed in Tiger Temple, wasn't good enough. So i had to leave a deposit of 20baht and borrow a skirt, which while very long and kind of annoying at times, came to grow on me and i did like the colour.
Me in my sexy skirt outside The Temple of the Emerald Buddah.
Now The Grand Palace looked pretty big on the map, and considering its name, i expected it to be pretty impressive, however, i wasn't expecting it to be SO impressive. It was absolutely huge with serveral different sections that all had a different set of buildings. There were lovely little gardens and statues everywhere, and fu dogs guardings most entrances.
Beautiful HAND PAINTED murals that were present in almost all inside walls.
A man literally hand painting some details onto one of the murals.
Once i was satisfied i had seen as much of the Grand Palace as humanly possible, i proceeded back to my hotel. I then packed up all my stuff and headed to the airport.....to find out my flight was cancelled with no prior warning...great! SO the airline; Jetstar put us all up in a hotel nearby called The Alexander. It was adequate for our one nights stay and then we proceeded to our flight in the next morning.
Okay, so i think this MORE THAN ENOUGH for now, and i shall update this at a later date with details of Melbourne so far. Bye.
