We awoke to what sounded like a waterfall gushing down above us. The rains had returned and in Thailand, when it rains it pours!
The weather matched our moods. After waking up feeling a little sad about loosing the tiger photos we decided that we would go back to the Samui Aquarium and Tiger Zoo and do it again.
Because of the program the resort had installed on their computers, when we inserted our memory card to view our pictures from the day, all the files we opened were sadly erased. The Mantra Samui saw the problem and organised transportation for us so that we could retake the photos with the tiger cub. This was really nice of them and we were very appreciative.
This time instead of paying for the aquarium and shows we just paid the 900 baht to bottle feed the tiger cub. We were quite lucky in a sense because the tiger cub we had this time was quite a lot younger and about half the size.
He was very cute, soft and cuddly!
The staff here were very rough with the cub and wanted everything to happen really fast. This place clearly just wants your money, after about 1 photo and 20 seconds he was ready to take the cub away. There was no one else in the entire park as the weather was quite a put off so we said we’ve paid 900 baht and would like at least a couple photos and some individual shots – They advertise you can take group pictures and individual photos for 900 baht, so we were going to make sure we got that.
Once our time was up we ran through the rain and got back into the car. Our driver ‘Sunny’, which we thought was ironic as there were floods outside, asked if we would like to go to another tiger zoo as they are a lot nicer towards their animals and customers. We said that would be great as we could then get our picture with an adult tiger 🙂
Here is a photo of the rain, the road was completely covered and Sunny said if the rain didn’t cease soon we would have to find an alternate way home because the roads would close.
Sunny drove us to Namuang Safari Park, just from driving up the path towards the entrance you could already tell that this place was a lot nicer.
It cost 300 baht per person per animal, so we decided on a young tiger, 5 year old leopard and an 8 month old tiger. The staff were really friendly and brought the animals down to their ‘room’ so that we could pose with them. The staff also gave us no time limit (keeping in mind the park wasn’t very busy) and took a total of 100 photos of us between the three cats.
First we spent time with the tiger cub, she was a lot closer in size to the one we fed yesterday and was very friendly and playful.
Next we spent some time with the leopard, he was a little more grumpy and we were definitely nervous around him. But still the staff placed our arms and made us pose. This is the best shot of Tim and the leopard, the roar was so loud!
Last but not least we moved into the room where the 8 month old tiger was. He was very friendly and very playful rolling on his back like a big kitten.
We really enjoyed ourselves at Namuang Safari Park and would highly recommend them to anyone who wanted to experience time with tigers and big cats. They didn’t have a cub at the time for bottle feeding, but they have in the past and sure they will again in the future. The cats here were definitely not drugged or sedated, which we loved and they all looked healthy and very well looked after.
When we got back to the hotel there was a voucher on our bed for complimentary room service…score! So we decided to take them up on the offer and ordered ourselves a few dishes to share and spent the night relaxed in the Jacuzzi listening to the rain.
