Chiang Mai - Tiger Kingdom and Long Neck's

Another very exciting day in Thailand - today we went to visit another two big attractions of the region. After a very positive experience with elephants, I was looking forward to see and touch real tigers. Visiting tigers cannot look exactly the same as elephants simply because no matter how well trained they are, they still are wild beasts and one have to always be careful as nobody can give you a guarantee for your safety; sometimes even the trainer who spend their whole life with one big cat can loose his life just because the tiger decide to attack or 'play'. And as much as the statement on Tiger Kingdom website and leaflets is probably true:

'In Tiger Kingdom NONE of the tigers are drugged or tranquilised, and we do not believe in using chains, restraints or any other forms of animal abuse.'

the conditions I have seen today they live in, is not even as close as pleasant to watch as in Elephant Park. Few large cats crumbled in a relatively small cages, with no real place to run (or maybe it is somewhere at the back that I haven't notice), and certainly very far from natural environment and behaviors (its obvious that tigers in that place have to be trained not to be aggressive to humans which is already against their nature, but I'm taking about a chance to hunt and run: I had an impression that some of the big tigers were a little bit overweight). Moreover, just 1 month old tigerinos are separated from their mothers just to be placed between humans so they are no afraid of them in the future.
To sum up, although we had a chance to make few good photos, I am not very proud that I left my money with place like that and I contributed to the demand for this conditions for tigers (regardless Darwin disagreement and saying that they have better conditions than many other tigers and at least they will not be killed for their fur).

New born tigers, unfortunately you cannot come close to them ...

... but you can come close to 3 months old ones.

The second stop was in the remote village of a 'tribe' (its a little too modern to be called a tribe I think) which is famous from woman wearing metal rings on their neck which make it to appear longer. Long neck allegedly is very attractive for their men - and I thought that it was a main reason for them to wear it. However while going to the village, our driver told us that while everybody thinks its for beauty purposes, in old times it actually was a protection from tigers that men used to put on their women to make them safer while men were hunting. The driver also told us that today the main reason to wear it is simply business.

The village is located in such a beautiful and peaceful place, surrounded by mountain, rice fields and jungles. The quietness, peacefulness and unreal beauty reminded mi a little bit of Hobbiton in Matamata, New Zealand. The fact that we were pretty much the only people visiting it at that time (apart from German couple who were leaving while we arrived) only added to the magic of the place. Young woman were all very beautiful there (we were laughing that they place pretty ones at the front on purpose and ugly ones are dong washing at the back) and people were very soft spoken, delicate and friendly although didn't speak english (since being in Thailand I learned that there is so many other ways to communicate than just a language). All over the village are little stands where you can buy beautiful handmade pieces of jewelery or clothing.
I very much recommend this place if you're about.

Locals picking rice on the rice field

A real one and one for tourists: they are so heavy!

My neck is 3 times shorter than this lady's, I must be so unattractive for their men :P

And this is how it looks like when they take it off...

I'm laughing that she looks like Darwin's sister!

Rice, rice, rice

Darwin in a tribal hat (me playing on Iphone)