IntoThailand!

 In Thailand we landed in Krabi and spent a few days in the markets there before spending some time at a beautiful island yoga retreat on Ko Yao Noi.

As usual we brought some slight precipitation with us and the island would later be evacuated due to flooding ... but not until 2 days after we left its generous puddles!

 Tom's hair is getting a little wild...

 We met some wonderful friends and spent some real quality time with them... Mr. Bey was too cool for this picture, but makes a mean Monkey Shake (peanut butter banana and chocolate smoothie!)

 We taught a quick ukulele lesson.

 Then fled from the rain to Chiang Mai where it is 45degrees Celsius and more delicious monkey-themed fruit smoothies are flowing freely at the Happy Monkey (coincidence? ... maybe not, as we are staying at the Funky Monkey guesthouse,etc. haha)

Chiang Mai is a great city of friendly people with plenty of opportunities for adventure - including several involving cuddling with endangered carnivorous animals.

 As usual (duh), you order your tigers from a menu of small, medium and large ...or smallest of which there are two categories.

 We thought this would be the closest we might get to the majestic beasts so we snapped a quick action shot.

 But thankfully, in Thailand it is totally an option to be left alone in a room with half a dozen baby tigers - there was belly scratching and cuddling.

Tigers are Tom's favourite and this was definitely a dream come true - don't think we will try this at the Calgary Zoo?

Here is an alley a few feet wide where you can have your fingers nibbled simultaneously by a lion and a tiger through generously sized holes in the chainlink fence!

After watching the tiger on the right stalk a toddler who walked past the enclosure, Tom decided to see if the tiger wanted to play and, well, taunted him by pretending there was a stair case descending down the path, then running the opposite direction past a sign that said no running.

The tiger chased and then pounced, and the lion played dead until it too pounced at the same second. Both cages rattled a few feet from his face and Tom got scared. This is on video. 

 Slightly less adrenaline was provided the next day by some bicycles and a mountain (Dave did you know this existed?)

Here is a picture of Chelsea doing her thing:

Just kidding, obviously she was by the hotel pool (duh!)


Love, Chel and Tom