That Monkey Just Did A Wee on Me - Days 10 & 11

That Monkey Just Did A Wee on Me - Days 10 & 11

Day 10 was a fairly insignificant day in terms of excitement. I got up early for my first ever Yoga session, which was surprisingly enjoyable and difficult. I was expecting to be standing in a pose I wasn't flexible enough to do for a few minutes, but it was the complete opposite. It involved constant movement, and fairly simple, but straining poses one after another in a fluid movement. It was very good, and I'll definitely be going again.

The only other key event of the day was the long awaited appearance of the infamous Stick. I was honestly beginning to believe that the stick was a myth, and was an empty threat, but Monday proved to me that the stick did exist, and man did Head Trainer Dang know how to use it. The killer task at the end of every session is 3 rounds of moving around the whole matted area, on tip-toes throwing alternate knees, with the threat that if you stop, or walk, you face the wrath of the much talked about stick. On Monday someone finally broke Dang's rules. A chap affectionately known as Big Baby, a 6'9" Danish  powerhouse with 2 full sleeve tattoo's which almost meet in the middle of his chest was the first to feel the power of the stick. Big Baby must have only stopped for 2 paces, but that was enough for Dang. He instructed Big Baby to stand by the mirror, and called for the stick. Dang warmed up his shoulder, pulled his arm back as far as he could and unleashed the entirety of his force into Big Baby's arse. Big Baby grimaced, had a look at the damage in the mirror, and then appeared fine, I'd have been struggling to walk for a week!

That's about all that's worth documenting from Day 10, a day of training and tiredness, getting up at half 6 was not easy! Now, onto Day 11, a day with much more to talk about. Day 11 was due to start with Yoga again, but that wasn't happening for me, as a clash of knees in sparring on Monday was enough to put me out of action for the day. So, instead of another day at boot camp, we opted for a day at the Zoo!

Around mid-day we set off in the sun, at the start of a 2 and a half kilometre hike to  Phuket Zoo. It was sweaty work to say the least, and we were incredibly glad we took a bottle of water with us for the journey, as we definitely needed it! After around half an hour of walking we made it to the gates of the Zoo and a little bit of excitement kicked in. We paid our 500thb each and headed inside. The Zoo experience started slowly, we didn't want to get ourselves too excited too early, so did something light to begin with, which was have our photo's taken with a massive tiger. Nice relaxing start. For 200thb we took a couple of pictures together, with me holding the Tiger's head up and Nic holding it's tail, then swapped having individual photo's holding the Tiger's head. The poor tiger was obviously sedated, but even so, it's pretty nerve wracking being that close to something that could, if it wanted to, tear you limb from limb. Definitely something cool to say you've done though!

Dan and the Tiger

Nic's turn with the cute kitty

Us and the Tiger

Once we'd finished posing with one of natures most dangerous predators, we moved on to a slightly tamer section of the trip, with the monkey show soon to kick off. The monkey show was probably the most disappointing of the 3 shows we'd go on to see that day, but that's not in any way a negative, as the show was still very fun and definitely worth a watch. The show included a monkey riding a trike, doing some maths and having a little Basketball session, as well as the usual posing and dancing that comes with these kinds of monkey shows.

After a look around at some of the animals, with a good look at the alligators, camels, elephants (which weren't being kept in the nicest of conditions) and a whizz around the aquarium we grabbed a bite to eat. Our dinner turned out to be the most disappointing food we'd had so far in Thailand. Although, to be fair, you can't really expect much from a hot-dog, chicken nuggets  and chips. Once our food was eaten, but not enjoyed we moved on to the second show of the day, and a show which turned out to be one of the most exciting parts of the day for Nicola!

The elephant show was one we weren't really looking forward to after seeing the poor conditions the elephants were being kept in, but it turned out to be easily the best. Once in the arena the elephants seemed genuinely happy, and appeared to be enjoying the attention and cheers from the crowd. After a bit of messing around, a little dance, some music and a few stunts there was a shout-out for 4 volunteers. It took Nicola all of 20 seconds and she was in the middle of the arena. I was then left with a task of my own, juggling the photo taking and video filming as the 2 elephants, one adult and one baby proceeded to walk over the 4 volunteers tapping them on the bottom as they carefully wandered over. It was a real crowd pleaser, especially with the 4 members in the middle, Nicola was loving her 5 minutes of fame!

Elephant proceeds to pat Nicola's bottom

Elephant patting Nicola :)

Nicola congratulated on her brave and fantastic performance

Once the Elephant show had finished, we had just over an hour until the final show of the day, the Crocodile show, so we saw this as the perfect chance to claim ourselves a couple more photo opportunities. The first port of call was to the Orangutang area to get a picture with the cuddly, ginger primate. As soon as we sat down the Orangutang was immediately affectionate and slung his long, hairy arms around us. Once that photo was taken, it was straight into the arms folded pose, before it was made even cooler with the addition of some funky sunglasses. We then got individual cuddle photo's and a cheeky kiss before moving on to our next photo opportunity. It was an amazing experience to be able to get so close to an animal I have always loved, and to experience one that was so affectionate and clearly enjoyed human contact without the need for sedation was lovely. Here are a few piccies of us with our new friend:

Ooo, cheeky.

Nicola getting a cheeky smooch too

A cuddle from our new friend

Pretty cool

A hell of a lot cooler

After a few pretty cool pictures with Mr Orangutang we moved to an area a short distance away to meet a little monkey and have our picture taken with him. This didn't start amazingly, as soon as he began to settle in to Nicola's arms the little bastard decided it'd be a good time to have a wee, soaking Nicola's arms and my shorts. I think that was his way of saying Hello. Once we'd got over the initial teething problems we settled in to having our photo's done. We got a few together, a few holding him in our arms, a few with him on our shoulders and then with the little monkey on our heads. Other than the urine incident it was another nice encounter, especially considering we were a little nervous about it after seeing him have a panic attack earlier in the day after seeing another monkey. I'm guessing the other monkey it saw was some sort of mob boss that he owed money too, as that can be the only rational reason for the little terror to run away and howl like he did!

Our first baby, with built in wee function

Monkey standing on my head

Monkey on Nicola's head

Perched happily on my shoulder

Nicola nervously looks on, praying his bladder is now empty!

Once we'd had our photo's done, we had one last wander around, seeing the Ostriches, which, other than one, which I'm presuming is the big boss on site, had had it's feathers all but removed from it's back. It seemed that this loss of feathers had come from fights of the past, as the main, and most confident ostrich had only lost a few in the middle of it's back. We took another look at the alligators, and a quick look at a kangaroo before taking our seats ahead of the Crocodile show.

This was the one I was looking forward to most. I find crocodiles and alligators incredibly interesting. They're a real throwback to the Jurassic era, with their thick scales, and general appearance and I just find them fascinating. I have seen so many videos of supposed Crocodile tamers getting over confident and having their arms taken home by an angry crocodile or alligator, and I was interested to see if I'd be able to catch something similar on film myself. It seemed unlikely once we'd arrived at the arena however, as the Crocodiles seemed very dosile, and appeared to be heavily sedated, which sort of takes away from the danger and thrill of the act.

Once the trainer had finished a few routine stunts, dragging the croc's around, putting a 50baht note in one's mouth before sticking his head in another it was over. This was when I managed to get my hands on a croc, and managed to get a picture holding the tail of one of the smaller croc's. I was happy enough to do this, there was no risk of getting a hand bitten off, or getting gator rolled, but when the trainer offered me the chance to sit on one of the croc's for 300thb I immediately turned him down. I'm happy to get close to a tiger, or a cuddle an orangutang, but there's no way I was heading into a pit with 6 crocodiles, sedated or not. 

Me holding the croc

Nic had a go as well :)

That was it then, our day at the Zoo over with. We had gone in with low expectations, expecting to come away massively disappointed and depressed at the state some of the animals were being kept in, but in actual fact we found the experience on the main to be a positive one. Sure, some of the animals, such as the elephants shouldn't be in small areas, or chained up, but generally the animals are well looked after. Also, we were really buoyed by the fact that the elephants seemed to genuinely enjoy their time in the show, and seemed very well treated by the trainers. Phuket Zoo is unlike any Zoo I have ever been to, and probably ever will go to, but I'm so glad we went, as we did a few things I'm sure we'll look back on and be very glad we did. It's not everyday you can walk 20 minutes and get your photo taken with a tiger and an orangutang. Here are a few more pictures :)

An angry looking Alligator

Cute deer looking thing

The Messi of the Elephant world

Better at handstands than me

Pretty bird

What the hell is that thing? Turns out it's a Bearcat :/

Woop Woop Woop, this little fella loved making that noise

Another cute looking monkey :)

Check the blog early tomorrow and I should have made the compilation movie of the various shows, including Nicola's starring role in the Elephant production. I'm sure you're looking forward to that!