24 Hours of Travel in 4 days - A new record! And a LOT of insanity.

After Ankgor Wat, we fancied a trip back to Bangkok, as Bangkok is the hub of all SE Asia travel.  So after one last fun night in Siem Riep that involved dinner and a Khmer dance show

And some "Cheese" Fries...this could sum up our food experience here - close but not quite there

Part of the Peacock Dance

Most of the show

we were off to Bangkok again!  Rather than take another 5 hour bus to Phnom Pehn to wait at the airport for two hours to fly one hour, we could save some hassle and money by just taking the bus.  So we booked the trip with a travel agent, and the next morning, only an hour after our expected departure time, we were on our way!  That meant more time rolling through the Cambodia countryside, which is like a rolling (or walking) circus.  We saw 30 people on the back of a pickup truck, oxen and chickens roaming free, pigs stacked on the back of bicycles (several times), all sorts of craziness.  During the inevitable "rest breaks" at the drivers cousins' shops, an Australian girl whom we nicknamed Suzie McFussypants got more and more agitated and vocal about her concerns.  Following is one of the conversations:

Melanie with McFussypants in the background haranguing the poor driver

Cambodian Driver (CD): OK, now we stop for lunch, 20 minutes!
McFussypants: Why are we stopping again?!?! We just stopped half an hour ago!!!
CD: Is OK, we stop 20 minutes.
McFussypants:I don't understand, why are we stopping SO MUCH!  SOME of us have TRAINS TO CATCH!!!
CD: No problem, have lunch, get snack...
McFussypants (louder):We have stopped 5 times already!  When you by a ticket, you expect to be ON TIME!!!!  We want to go to Bangkok, NOT go shopping!!!  Lets GO!
CD: Ok, we go, 20 minutes... (wandering away)....
McFussypants: AAAUUUUUUUGGGGGHHHhHHHHHH!!!!

If you've been traveling in SE Asia for more than 15 minutes, you realize that you have to be flexible, and trust that although you don't understand, there is some sort of system, and you will get there, even sort of comfortably, eventually, so you should kick back and stay calm.  This girl did the complete opposite, and we thought she was going to die of an aneurism as she just got more and more furious and demanding.  Type-A people just don't do well here.  Don't worry, be happy!

The Thailand-Cambodia border was an interesting place, another place where it seems like madness reigns but actually works pretty well.  The bus lets everyone out and you get stamped out on the Cambodia side, walk across a chaotic 400-yard stretch of no-mans land and get your visa and stamp at the Thai office, where you catch a different bus.  Thai drivers drive on the left side of the road, Cambodians drive on the right, so in between there are no rules, just a lot of honking and near head-on collisions as people switch sides.  There are also these things:

Heavy industry and Handcarts operating side by side

That's a lot of pigs, and you could hear their squeals for miles

The real reason for the strange area - so they could put up a casino!

Once on the Thai side of the border, after a confusing wait and mob, we boarded a van for the rest of the trip to Bangkok.  Total travel time that day: 9 hours.

Bangkok is an interesting place around Christmas.  Thailand is 90% Buddhist so there's no real reason for it's existence so it's entirely commercial.  We went to our favorite mall for pretzels, doughnuts, and "The Hobbit", and saw what Thai Christmas really is:

Quite a stir as Santa walked around...

with other mascots, all just wandering around

They had a car show going on in the mall, and walking around we saw various fancy cars: BMW's, Ferrari's, Lamborghini, and best of all, the one shown above: the Rolls Royce Phantom.  As we are big fans of the British TV show Top Gear, we knew this car when we saw it.  The sheet gives the details of the car, and they are pretty cool: cutting-edge technology, hand-built, a V12 engine, etc.  It is known as THE luxury car, and it did look pretty nice.  The price tag?  32,000,000 Thai Baht.  I saw that number, and converted it in my head as $100,000 USD.  That was pretty impressive, but it was an impressive car and the lap of luxury, so I understood it might be worth it some.  Then I realized I'd made a mistake: the exchange rate is 30:1, which means that car, in that picture, is worth $1 MILLION USD!  The face in the picture is the one I made when I realized that that car has a 7-figure price tag.  I never imagined such a thing was possible.  Oh yeah, the car barely shown in the background is worth $1.3 million. Needless to say I walked around stunned for quite a while wondering: how do you spend sooooooooo much money on a car?  I still have no idea what makes a car worth that much.

So after less than 48 hours in Bangkok, we were off to the north of Thailand to a place called Chiang Mai, a place I'd been looking forward to for a long time.  After a 14 hour train ride that was so boring that we only managed this picture at the end:

Uggggghhhh

we were there!  The trip was only supposed to take 12 hours, and ended up being 15 hours with various stops and getting to and from the train station.  That being said, we much prefer train travel to bus.  There are no traffic jams, the seats are more comfortable, the ride is smoother, and there are no "20" (45) minute stops every 45 minutes at the drivers "cousins" stores.  It hypothetically would have been a 9 hour bus ride, but we like trains so much better that we went for longer trip in more comfort.

Despite spending so much time traveling, the next morning I practically sprung out of bed with excitement, because we were headed off (unbeknownst to Melanie) to HANG OUT WITH TIGERS!!!  It's true!

Yes, I was quite excited!

Excitement, yes, mixed with quite a large does of terror

Us and our trusty steed for the day.  Have I ever driven a moped or motorcycle before?  Not at all.

Cats! Lots of giant Cats!

Don't mind me!  Or actually, don't KILL me!  Please?

Melanie is not fooling him...

Tiger pillow - the best kind

Brannan-tiger sandwich!  Thankfully they were small, unthankfully, they were clawed, fanged, and playful.

That little guy snuck right up on me!

How much fun!

We went to a place called Tiger Kingdom, and warmed up with the "small" tigers, 60-80 lbs, moved on to the biggest, 600-700 lbs, and finished with the smallest, 15-20 pounders.  They were all SO CUTE!  And they behaved just like house cats!  They spent most of the time laying around, but if the trainers grabbed the toys, they would jump up and start playing with it and each other.

A dangling string gets all the cats, no matter what size.

It actually wasn't all that scary, they were very well trained, calm, and peaceful.  They did have all their claws and teeth, and they could have clawed us if they wanted, but they were just too cute to resist cuddling with.  One of the trainers said they go through 2000 lbs of chicken a day, for 50-60 tigers, which was nice to hear.  The strategy is to make sure the cats are never hungry, which I think is a fantastic idea.  The biggest cats are only 2 years old, so they go from kitten to enormous killer in a VERY short time.

Because we were already far outside of town and had our trusty motorbike, we decided to go for a little motor cruise and  came upon something else crazy: Zorbing!

Us and our Zorb.  Huh?

The concept is simple and New Zealand-based: strap yourselves into a huge beachball:

Step one: Check!

 And get rolled down a hill:

Easy enough...

 Into this lake!

Uhm... now what???

Then you are left to walk hamster-style out of the lake.  Of course that was preposterous because the slightest movement by either of us would pitch the ball sideways, leaving us in a giggling heap at the bottom of the ball.  We really just wanted to avoid falling out of the hole into the dirty lake.  Success! 

The entire experience was sooo bizarre and unlike anything else.  We spent the entire trip down the hill laughing our heads off.  The situation was crazy that we couldn't help but laugh.  And it was really super fun!

Sooooo ridiculously crazy stupid fun.  Pardon my equally stupid hair, it's just been tossed and rolled down a hill

We can highly recommend both of these activities, they are both ridiculous and super fun.  It was one heck of a day.  And to make the day more ridiculous, we got stranded on the way back into town with a flat.  Boooooo.

Fortunately, as they break down all the time, we have never been more than 500 meters from a bike repair shop, and after a frustratingly hot walk and $4, we were zipping down the road again.  When we got home, we were exhausted, but very content with an extraordinary day.  Tigers and Zorbing, both get the thumbs-up from us!