#139 Pet a Lion or Tiger and Not Get Mauled

Sylvie the tiger whisperer

Don't even ask me why this is on my bucket list because it's ridiculous and frightening as hell. If I had to self diagnose I'd say it's on here because it could kill me therefore making it fun??  I don't know for sure but it's adventurous and hard to do so it finds itself appropriately at slot #139.

I'm not really sure you could ever snuggle an adult tiger in the United States. There are entirely too many rules and regulations here. So while on my trip to Thailand my buddy Sylvie took me to a place in Chiang Mai called Tiger Kingdom where the practice of petting and snuggling up on adult Bengal tigers is totally acceptable. When Sylvie told me the name of the place we would be going I did some quick research and discovered they had 3 serious maulings on tourists in the past 18 months. You would think this would deter me....yea...no not at all. It however did put the fear of god into me about my visit.

When we arrived at the facility they offered packages of visiting various sized tigers. They had little cubs, small tigers, medium sized teenager tigers and then full fledged adults. The most expensive being the cubs and the cheapest being the adults. It totally freaked me out that the ones that can actually maul you or rip half your face off with one clean swipe are the cheapest and most financially accessible to visit. WTH? We choose to visit the adults, teenagers and cubs.

I'll rub your butt....please don't eat my face. 

Being locked in a cage with 3 or more Bengal Tigers is pretty crazy and exhilarating. But you have to keep calm because they will absolutely pick up on how you feel. Sylvie knew I was a bit nervous and quickly reminded me not to blow into the tigers face like I had the elephants trunk on an earlier excursion. Hilarious, Sylvie. Laugh it up.

This was the scariest moment of my life. Sylvie basically rode the thing around the yard making her that much more scary. 

The tigers are huge and they feel like....well....rugs. But when you are with them its awe-inspiring. When you touch them you can feel their energy and life force. It's powerful. It's also scary to know the only thing protecting you if it decides to use it's energy to eat you is a Thai guy with an 8 inch bamboo stick.

Belly rubs

Visiting the teenagers was less scary then the adults and visiting the cubs was entertaining as hell. One cub was clearly the most ill behaved and would not stop attacking the other cubs therefore sealing him in as our favorite. His antics were rather amusing but I noted I was especially happy to have met this tiger while he was a baby rather than when he was full grown.

Also, while there we visited the sole Lion on the premises. You are not allowed to pet this Lion and he is kept just out of reach. He was breathtakingly handsome and his contrast to the tigers was intoxicating. He had such a sense of power I don't think I would have wanted to pet him even if I could have. But lucky for me snuggling with the tigers was enough to get #139 Pet a Lion or Tiger and Not Get Mauled into the books and officially checked off the list.

Read about my other excursions and bucket list items completed in Thailand:

#111 Blow into the Trunk of an Elephant
#67 Travel to Thailand
#114 Fight in Another Country

#111 Blow into the Trunk of an Elephant

This bucket list item was inspired by my amazing friend Sylvie Von Duuglas-Ittu. Sylvie is incredibly intelligent and funny and I love and appreciate the way she thinks and expresses herself. She has this uncanny ability to explain and decipher situations that is almost poetic. At the same time she is edgy and pure and of course is a total flippin badass. About two and a half years ago she came to stay with me in Pennsylvania for a long weekend while preparing for a muay thai fight. One night after training we went out for some well deserved wings and drinks at a local pub and while there we discussed the 3 month long trip she had taken to Thailand. During that conversation she had mentioned that if you blow into the trunk of an elephant that it will remember you forever. Elephants live to be as old as 85 so who wouldn't want their memory to be trapped inside a prehistoric giant for a lifetime? It quickly found its home on my bucket list in slot 111.

Don't worry that elephant isn't trying to eat me. I'm stuffing his face with bananas so we can be friends.

Flash forward two years and here I am in Thailand visiting Sylvie who has been living here for a year while fighting Muay Thai professionally. Sylvie being the awesome person she is booked us a day trip to ride elephants in the jungle with Patra Elephant Farm. Kinda the perfect environment for trunk blowing if you ask me. Let me just say wrangling a 12,000lb elephants trunk is entirely more difficult to do than I had ever anticipated. In hindsight I don't know what the hell I was thinking. Good thing I'm no quitter.  

Swimming with my elephant

Sylvie with her swim buddy

Sylvie getting her scrub on

I had about 6 hours to complete my conquest. During that time we made friends with our elephants, cleaned them, went swimming with them, bathed them, ate an awesome lunch and then rode them through the jungle for about 2 hours. Sylvie excelled at cleaning her elephant I on the other hand did a subpar job. I just wanted to hangout with it. Besides the elephant I swam with was a legit rebel and she didn't want to listen to anyone. It's quite a feeling to be on the back of this tyrannosaurus rex like creature and its just does whatever the hell it wants. At one point in the water it scared the living hell out of me by flopping down on its side. About halfway down I abandoned ship throwing myself off into the water, mind you I'm no Michael Phelps. I just flailed around like spaz case while my elephant handler assistant guy thought I lost my mind. 

This was Sylvie and I's staged fight photo. This is what happens when you put two girls together who can't behave. Pretty cool pic tho huh? 

Riding the elephants through the jungle was AMAZING. Elephants only breath about 3 times a minute so when they do it's like a whale coming up for air. And their ears are like gigantic sheets of leather that flap against your legs. When they get hot and they don't have any water to cool themselves they blow snot all over your legs but you can't even get mad because your in the jungle riding an elephant.   

All aboard!

Please note Sylvie not helping....only heckling. Total jerk. :)

Sylvie and I opted to ride together on the same elephant which in the end was a great decision. Our faces hurt from laughing so hard and we totally went crazy when our elephant ripped a tree down and ate it while we were riding it. We had the best elephant on the whole trip. 

When we finished our ride Sylvie got right down to business about blowing in a trunk.  Her master plan was get our elephants attention by stuffing its face with bananas and then I'd have to just grab a hold and give a good blow. Let's just say way easier said than done. Not to mention I probably looked like a maniac trying to do it. Sylvie got it on the first try but unfortunately for me I wasn't ever able to wrangle the trunk and was quickly watching my quest slip through my fingers. Enter baby elephant.

After this picture was taken we were told petting or pushing on the head could get us trampled and killed. Oops. 

Baby is actually trying to push me over but it's cool...we're bff's now.

Baby elephant was four months old and looked more like an aardvark on steroids than an elephant. It was an extraordinarily jubilant little specimen that weighed around 400 pounds. It's most favorite activity was ramming tourists and trying to sit on the elephant handlers. Sylvie shares her own entertaining experience with wrestling the baby elephant here. While playing with this baby elephant we watched one of the handlers give it water from a water bottle and then gently and playfully blow in its trunk. Sylvie and I's jaws dropped and we stared at each other in disbelief. I can't even describe how quick I jettisoned my backpack on the floor and scrambled for my water bottle. It took about 2 minutes for me to pied piper the baby over, grasp his soft little trunk and seal myself in there for ever. Mission accomplished and #111 in the books!  

Read about some of my other adventures in Thailand here:

#139 Pet a Lion or Tiger and Not Get Mauled
#114 Fight in Another Country
#67 Travel to Thailand

# 38 Place in a Photo Contest

My winning photo! Foxy Loxy.

I love photography. I bought my first Nikon film camera when I was 22. I barely knew how to use it and pretty much ended up taking snap shots as opposed to creating any kind of photographs but it still made me happy.  When I was 24 I upgraded, going digital with a Nikon D80. Since then it has become a passion of mine. In the last two years or so my mother has also taken up an interest in photography and for fun we signed up to take a photo expedition tour with Dan's Camera City located in Allentown, Pa. The day trip was to the Lakota Wolf Preserve in Columbia, NJ.

About 30 people attended the trip which was run in conjunction with Tamron lenses. The preserve allows people on the trip to get much closer to the animals than a normal paying visitor could get. Two Tamron reps also attend the trip and let you borrow a wide array of lenses you might otherwise never get to try. It's a pretty cool deal. The trip also sponsors a photo contest with the winning photo recieveing a brand spanking new 70-300mm Tamron lens.

Foxy Loxey

The trip was a blast and I loved the time I got to spend with my mom but I have to admit part of the expedition was a bit intimidating. I'd say 80% of the people who attended were hard core. They had thousands of dollars of gear and big money lenses. Not to say that I don't have a nice setup but it sure didn't compare to some of the folks in attendance. Mainly because of this I never had any intentions of entering a photo but my mom wore me down like a river rock and two days before the deadline I finally sent in two photos. 

On December 13th I got the email that I won the contest! I couldn't believe it. About two weeks later my new swank lens showed up and #38 officially went into the books. 

# 27: Fly Fish in a Scenic Mountain River

As a self proclaimed adventure junkie every year I use my birthday as an excuse to get out of town and see some corner of the world. This past September Jim and I flew out to Colorado and spent 8 days in and around Rocky Mountain National Park. We choose this park for a number of reasons but the major one was how much I was dying to get out and fly fish. So the deal was I didn't care what we did all trip (total bluff on my part by the way, I'm a legit vacation Nazi) but come hell or high water I was fly fishing on my birthday. Lucky for me Jim was just as excited as I was.

Mountain lake on one of our many epic hikes

Bull elk during rut in RMNP

We booked our trip through Kirk's Fly Shop in Estes Park, Colorado. They came highly recommend to us by a hunting buddy who was just out in the RMNP area for a fishing trip. We were not disappointed at all. Our professional guide was Will Beggs and he spent four hours teaching us the ropes and watching us have a blast reeling in rainbows and brownies. Jim and I each pulled in 10 to 15 fish.

The catch

And release

Me getting my fish on

More bounty

The only down side to our trip was that I'm pretty sure I'm hooked...no pun intended. I told Jimbo that when I retire from fighting my new hobby will be fly fishing. So from now on wherever we vacation I'll be looking for an outfitter to get us out on some fish! So it's official...#27 went into the books on September, 27th 2012.