Tiger Kingdom [Jacob Burke]

a tiger

Have you ever pet a tiger? Well I have. It happened on my 12^thbirthday on June 2014, in Phuket, Thailand.

A 30-minute drive in our rental car and we arrived at our destination, Tiger Kingdom. I was astonished by how many cars were parked in the parking lot. I suspected there wasn’t going to be many, for it was low season. There was such an enormous amount of cars in fact; we had a bit of trouble finding a parking spot.

When we entered Tiger Kingdom we saw that it was packed with tourists. There was a lot of racket from all of the people inside the building talking in their different languages. After looking at the sizes of the tigers on computer screens for a small amount of time, we bought our tickets for the size smallest. Any larger size tiger you would have to be 15 years old.

The size smallest was quite small, but they were not babies. They were at least 1 – 2 years old and were about the size of me. When we got our tickets, we headed down to the space where the tigers were held and waited for our turn. The cage for smallest had a smooth floor and little wooden fences. There was

no mess because the trainers cleaned everything up.

Me cuddling with our tiger

Joshua, James and I with our tiger

 While we were waiting for our turn, we took pictures of ourselves. When it was time for us to come in, we read the rules, washed our hands, put on some sandals (we couldn’t wear our shoes inside the cage), and entered. I was amazed by how domesticated all the tigers were. The tiger we got was very calm and was absolutely OK with us petting him. I got to lie with, cuddle, and pet him a lot. He especially liked it when my dad rubbed his belly. He rolled around and purred like it was very comfortable. We got a lot of good pictures with him. After about thirty minutes we had to leave. I was unhappy to leave my friend but I felt my birthday present was one of the best.

 When we left the tiger we were petting, we instantly started washing our hands. While that was happening some of the smallest tigers started play fighting together. They were rolling around and growling. After that we looked at the other tigers.

Smallest

Mom and I with our tiger

Small was a bit bigger then the Smallest by about 1^1/2 of a foot and were 2 – 3 years old. The Mediums were a bit smaller then my dad and the big were bigger than him. Those large tigers had big grassy terrains with a pool unlike the smallestwho has the same habitat as the small. There were people petting the bigs and it was pretty funny because the Thai people were very small compared to the big tigers. After we finished looking at all the tigers we went out of the tiger zone and into the gift shop. In the gift shop I looked at some things and decided on getting a cool and realistic tiger t–shirt. When we left we took one last picture in front of a sign with my new shirt.

Thanks for reading   Jacob

Inner Thailand Trips [Joshua Burke]

This last Sunday we decided to go on a tour to ride elephants, go river rafting, visit the tsunami museum, and to visit a monkey temple. These attractions were not in Phuket, but in the province to the East. It only took an hour and a half to get there by van and they were all very fun. We had nice tour guide and the tour group planned the entire day out.

The misty landscape

Our guide telling us about the tsunami. 

The first thing that we did was to go to the tsunami museum. In 26/12/2004 an earthquake that measured 9.3 on the Richter scale triggered a tsunami that hit Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, Malaysia, Burma, Bangladesh, Somalia, Tanzania, and Kenya. It left about 300,000 people dead. In Thailand alone 5,321 people were killed and 8,457 people were injured. The wave was over 10 m (30ft) high and caused may billions of dollars of damage. It swept boats all the way inland and destroyed towns.          

A police boat that was swept in all the way to here by the tsunami. 

The elephant camp was out in the jungle and luckily it had just stopped raining hard so we didn’t get wet. As we were riding on the elephant, it would stop and take huge palm fronds off trees and snap them in half with its trunk, and then eat them. I thought it was amazing how strong their tusks are. Riding on an elephant is a lot of fun, and especially when you get to feed the elephants bananas. When we were all done riding the elephants James gave 100 baht to a baby elephant, and it went to the counter and bought bananas for its self. It even played the harmonica as a thank you.

Me at the elephant camp. 

On the elephant.

Me feeding the elephants bananas

James on the baby elephant 

After riding the elephants we took a break and had some lunch at a local restaurant. As soon as we got under the roof, it started raining like crazy. When the rain stopped we then proceeded to the bamboo rafts that we were going to take down a river. It then started to rain again, but luckily our tour guide gave us ponchos so we weren’t soaked. It is currently the rainy season here so the river was higher then usual and the current was stronger. Unfortunately we didn’t see monkeys, or any wildlife for that matter. They were probably all hiding in their homes. When we arrived at our stop by the river we walked up a path to these amazing limestone caves. They looked pretty old and there were people’s signatures on some parts of the limestone. We didn’t get to explore the caves which was too bad. But our rafter boiled some water in bamboo and made tea with it. They then served it with bamboo cups.

Our last stop was the monkey temple, which had tons of monkeys. They were so hilarious. We bought some food for them and fed them bananas, peanuts, and corn. I threw some corn up and they caught it in midair hanging upside down from a tree branch. The temple is inside a cave formation and there was a big, reclining Buddha inside. On one part of the cave’s wall there were signatures of the Siam’s (Thailand’s) kings. The oldest signature went back to 1827.

Yum!!

The reclining Buddha

Thanks for reading and for all the comments via Facebook. 

Joshua 

Tiger Kingdom - Phuket, Thailand [James Burke]

For Jacobs’ birthday we went to Tiger Kingdom. Tiger Kingdom is an attraction in Phuket, Thailand, where you can pet tigers. The tigers we got to pet where the smallest and about 1 – 2 years old. I never pet a tiger before. It was so cool. The cage we went in had three tigers in it. The cage had a smooth floor and a wooden fence. We got to pet one of the three tigers. He was very calm, cute, and happy. There were three more sizes of tigers small, medium and big. The small tigers had the same type of cage that the smallest had and were about 2-3 years old. The medium and big both had grassy terrain with a pool and were over 4 years old. When we were done we stopped at the Tiger Kingdom gift shop and Jacob got a shirt with a tiger on the front.

My family with the young tiger

The gift shop

From Bangkok to Singapore [Joshua Burke]

Hey everyone, I haven’t done a blog in a while but haven’t been doing much stuff besides doing Muai Thai boxing and more recently, hot yoga. Still stuck in Phuket, Thailand and repairing the boat, but I have to say it is coming along. We should be done fixing the boat by October. Jacob just turned 12 and had an awesome birthday party. I just recently did two trips, one to Bangkok and then to Pattaya, (some ways south of Bangkok), and then after that did another trip down to Singapore to do a visa run and to meet up with my friend, Niall. I got to ride in an airplane again so those trips were exciting.

Me on the airplane to Bangkok.

 The reason why I got to go on those trips was that I got A’s for 7^th grade all year long. J

When we, (Dad and I) and my friend Craig who was fighting there, flew into Bangkok I was amazed at how large and densely populated the city was. We walked around the city and took a cab until we found a hotel that we could stay for the night. The hotel that we stayed in Bangkok was pretty cheap for the size and quality of the room as well as the amenities, (50 US bucks a night). Our room was super nice, it was large and had a TV that actually had English channels. To top that off, the toilet had a heated seat. The hotel also had a swimming pool, a spa, and a breakfast buffet, (my favorite). 

Me in Bangkok

Is this safe?!?!

Checking in at the amazing hotel. 

Me at the breakfast buffet.

As most of you know there was a coup here in Thailand. All I saw in Bangkok were some armed guards and more riot police. I think that the rioting had died down. We didn’t see a riot in the streets. Dad and I went to a different Muai Thai fight while we where here. It was at Lempini the newest and best stadium in Thailand. The fights were really good, much better quality then Phuket fights. The stadium was really loud from all the people betting on the fighters. You could tell when the majority if the betters lost because the stadium went quiet all of a sudden.

The Thai fighters. (with betters in the background)

More Thai betters.

One of the riot police in the stadium. 

We took a mini van the next day to Pattaya, (about an hour and a half drive). We stayed at a resort type hotel for 2 nights. The stadium where Craig was fighting was pretty cool. It was all televised, and I swore that my shirt made it on TV. So there are four fighters that are competing in an elimination fight. The winner gets 10,000 US dollars, second place gets 5,000 US dollars, and third and forth place gets 2,500 US dollars. Unfortunately Craig got in third place. The winner was a rip Thai guy who beat a Russian to get the winning prize. There were some other, minor fights that went on but they weren’t as good. Our last day of that trip we drove around town and went out to eat at a Thai restaurant. The food was super spicy!!!

Out resort at Pattaya 

The four fighters, (Craig being closest)

The stadium

The ring, with the red carpet.

Craig in the blue, his Thai opponent in the red.

Wham!

Bam!

My trip to Singapore with Dad was one day later after getting home from Bangkok. We came in by airplane at night and the entire city was lighted up. It was really cool to see. Unfortunately the person sitting behind me stuck something pointy in the back of my seat. So the entire flight I had a sharp thing stuck in my back. When we got to the hotel I was amassed at how small our room was. The room was smaller then our bathroom at our rental home in Phuket! The room had every thing you needed: two small beds, a tiny bathroom and a desk. The Hotel was right by the Royal Singapore Yacht Club where Niall was staying on his boat.

The next day Dad and I went to the Thai embassy to start the process of getting my visa. We had to get tons and tons of paper work of stuff that I didn’t even know that you had to get for a visa. We had to go over to a nearby hotel to print it all out. After that, I headed over to his boat and the first thing that we did was catch up on a few things before heading to the club’s 3-meter (9 foot) deep swimming pool. It even has a glass wall on one side. After swimming we decided to go to a movie. We chose the Edge of Tomorrow. If you haven’t seen it yet it is an amazing movie and I recommend seeing it. We asked a person where the closest movie theatre was and he told us it was just a 10 min. cab ride. It ended up being a 40 min. cab ride, but that’s ok because Niall and I just ended up watching Lincoln, (another good movie), until we arrived.

The next day we started the day off by going to a WW2 museum. The museum mostly talked about Singapore in WW2, and I learned a lot of new history that I didn’t know before. For example, the British defenders of Singapore expected an attack from the East by sea, so that’s where they put up most of their defenses. Instead the Japanese landed in the allied country of Siam (Thailand) and marched through British controlled Malaya (Malaysia) until they reached the island of Singapore. When the Japanese landed the British forces withdrew from the coast allowing more Japanese to land. Even though the Japanese were outnumbered they won do to tactical mistakes by inexperienced British generals.

After getting back from the museum, Niall and I played Axis and Allies Europe (a WW2 board game that is kind of like Risk) for about 5 hours strait. I was the Axis (Germany and Italy), and unfortunately I lost the battle of Britain, and then the Russians came in, and then I got flattened. It just comes to show that history is doomed to repeat its self. I spent the night on his boat and the next morning we had time to swim before I had to leave for the airport.

Us going into the museum.

The strategy faces.

Thanks for reading

Joshua