Up close and personal

After a week at the beach, the team headed to Chiang Mai this past Wednesday.  There’s not really an update for the beach.  I took about two pictures.  The rest of the time I ate, napped, and read.  That’s about it.  It was entirely and completely wonderful.

Yesterday, since our team just can’t seem to be apart for more than a few days at a time, a bunch of us headed to the Chiang Mai zoo.  This was my first zoo excursion in the city and it was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before.  This zoo allows you to get up close and personal with the animals.  The kind of up close and personal that would guarantee a mile high pile of lawsuits in the states.  Sometimes it can be quite fun to live and travel in lands that aren’t overrun with litigiousness.  So exactly how close did we get?  Here’s the photographic evidence.

This is one hungry hippo.  Cartoons, stuffed animals, and board games would make you believe the hippo is a cute cuddly creature.  Viewed up close, I would beg to differ.

Want to pet a hippo?  Come on over to Thailand!

Next we moved onto an even more personal encounter with the giraffes.

Samantha was not a big fan of the close contact at first, and not happy with her father’s affection for the giant creatures.

But eventually she began to warm up, and agreed to feed the giraffe herself (take a look at that tongue!).

In fact, she was brave enough to keep a firm hold on that green bean post-tongue grab.

Others came up with more unconventional methods for feeding the giraffes.

And if one guy does it, the rest have to follow suit.  Something about proving how tough they are.  Something beyond my understanding.  His daughter seems quite interested in the process, though.

Next it was on to the elephant and more dad and daughter bonding times.

Finally, the kitty cat.

Isn’t he/she absolutely adorable?

Ok, so the adorableness factor just dropped a few points and the ferociousness factor rapidly leaped up.  But what do you expect when raw meat is waved in front of your face?

For all the show of teeth, he/she took the meat quite daintily.

And that my friends is the zoo experience in Thailand–a close encounter with the animal kingdom.