What a Score, Heard the Real Roar!

A weekend unlike any other that I have yet to experience in my mere 27 years... I was off to Kanchanaburi this past weekend, which is a two hour ride north of Bangkok. The adventure began immediately as we missed the bus, waited for a few hours on the side of the road for bus #2, which never arrived, and ended up taking a taxi with two guys who were unwilling to wait and got themselves a little "tipsy" along the way. Of course, the taxi driver had no idea where he was supposed to take us, which did add to the drama. But of course, as most things do work out, we got there just fine and dandy in the end.

Saturday morning was all about chilling with some animals. Among the masses included an ostrich, elephants, crocodiles, birds, zebras, tigers, lions, camels and giraffes. The giraffes were the definite highlight and were not all about playing shy. They literally put their heads right into our bus for some bananas and such that we had saved for them. It was so fun and I really could have stuck around with them all afternoon. What animals! So gentle yet so determined! After the giraffes we hung out with the elephants and held the tail of a crocodile. This Park was very unlike North American parks... you don't just look, you touch!

From the Safari Park we were then headed to the Tiger Temple. Here we walked around with the animals once again. What's the excitement in these branch-eating animals... we headed for the ones with fangs and ended up sitting beside tigers. I had two rather "interesting" moments. I touched a smaller tiger on the belly. The previous tigers really ignored my little pats, but this tiger turned right around, paw first, followed by a little growl and teeth. I froze, the people around me said, in somewhat panicked voices, "don't move! don't move!" I left unharmed and stopped by a few more tigers for some pics, so I wasn't really that traumatized. The next moment was with a little 4 month old cub who did graze me with his teeth. Again, no skin tore, no blood shed. But I'm tempted to create the story as I did in fact get bitten by a tiger... that is kinda cool.. no?


I left later that evening and didn't even rest the eyes on the van ride home. It was an adventure and I'm excited for the others to come!

She Sang Soprano While I Played Piano

A cute story! I'm so excited to have stumbled upon a cute story!

I miss my piano, any piano in fact. I miss being able to relax with the ivories and just zone out in the key of D. Today I had to go to the doctor's for a "medical" in order to finalize some paperwork for my permanent work VISA. I heard a few interesting things about this doctor, so I wasn't quite excited to go. I arrived, the doctor's husband greeted me, I think their daughter was behind the desk and their son was in the back doing homework. Quite the family affair. This little office was all-inclusive, your business being everyones business. I then noticed something off to the side.

"Is that a piano?" A piano indeed! (Well, an Electron to be exact). They had me play a few songs, then pulling out Thai songs, the doctor singing in her best singing voice right beside me. Her son then played a few songs for me. A family heirloom, violin, was pulled into the mix, exam requirements for this instrument shown to me, music galore and the history of certain songs. I was in my glory! The doctor made me promise to return, insisting that I could visit and play anytime, any day and they would never ask me to leave.

Forty minutes later I left the office, the ability to play the piano apparently sufficing as a healthy medical check, only to return the following afternoon for the next show. I love these moments!