Thailand Day 4 was all about petting giant, exotic cats, taking in one of the many Buddhist temples in Phuket, shopping, and Indian food. We started out the day as we had started every day, piling our plate with items from the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet. It truly never got old. Then we got dressed and headed out to negotiate a cab fare with our go-to cab guys.

There’s a group of taxi drivers that stands on the side of the street near our hotel, so we haggled one of them down from a high price to 700 baht ($20 USD) to take us to Tiger Kingdom, wait for us there, take us to Wat Chalong Temple, wait for us there, and then take us back to our hotel. Maybe it sounds high to people who have been to Thailand and know how cheap things are there, but to Americans staying in a touristy area it sounded like a deal.

We pulled up to Tiger Kingdom and looked at the packages. Megan was super excited about the tigers, and since you only get 10 minutes with each size of tiger you choose to visit, she wanted to do the big and small tiger package. It seemed like a once in a lifetime experience, so I was willing to try it. Plus 10 minutes didn’t seem like much time.

Then we signed a waiver saying we wouldn’t sue them, paid, and walked past the ticketing area. There wasn’t a wait for the small tigers, so a trainer let us into the tiger enclosure right away. He brought us over to a sleepy tiger resting in the shade. At first I was mostly hands off because I didn’t want to agitate it, but the trainer encouraged me to pet and lay on the tiger. It sounds like a crazy idea writing about it now, but at the time it just seemed like a big, sleeping cat, not a wild animal. Megan and I took turns taking photos with different tigers in the same enclosure. They were all sleepy and nonthreatening. The trainer said they sleep 18 hours a day, and the brochure assured us they weren’t drugged. We got some great pictures, and soon our 10 minutes was up.

We walked out, dumbfounded we had just touched a bunch of tigers. We walked by the baby tiger den, which there was a 2 hour wait for. It goes without saying that the baby tiger was adorable, but I did feel a little sad that it would grow up only knowing a life in captivity, cameras everywhere. I guess the alternative is that it might be captured or killed in the wild, which doesn’t seem that great either (sort of like the elephants). I suppose humans caring for them isn’t the worst option, but it did feel a little inhumane.

Next, we checked out the big tiger enclosure. They were significantly larger than the small tigers we had just seen. The trainers brought us inside. These tigers were awake, and the trainers guided them around with toys to facilitate pictures. Most of the time, I felt completely safe. My heart did race a little bit when the tiger made sudden movements, like jumping onto the table or reaching for the toy. I know it sounds dangerous, but it was a really cool experience to be that close with a tiger, and since nothing bad happened, I’m glad I did it. The staff made you feel really safe around the tigers, telling you how to approach them and what to do.

We spent a little more time looking at the tigers and checking out the shop, but then we went to find our cab driver. He walked right out, and we were off to Wat Chalong Temple. I was glad we were going to get to see at least one cultural thing while we were in Thailand, given the area we were staying was very beach centric. We brought long pants and socks with us since we read that you’re supposed to cover up inside a Buddhist temple.

We drove through a giant, golden gate, and he dropped us off. There were multiple buildings on the temple grounds, built in 1837. When we approached the central tower (Phra Mahathat Chedi), we encountered a sign that asked people to cover their shoulders and knees, not wear hats, and take off their shoes. We saw droves of people walking  right past the sign in shorts, completely ignoring what it said. However, we did the respectful thing and went to the bathroom to change, even though it was really hot.

We came back to the main building more covered up, and walked into a large room filled with golden Buddha statues in various positions— standing, laying down, sitting. Murals illustrating stories of Buddhism adorned the walls toward the ceiling. Gold columns made the room feel tall and important.

We climbed the stairs and saw an area for praying in front of a large Buddha and lotus flower. Some Thai people were praying on their knees behind burning incense at the same time rude tourists snapped selfies of themselves with the Buddha. It bothered me that these people couldn’t recognize this is actually a place people come to worship. Lots of people live in Phuket and this is their local temple. I think I watched the same woman take five or six attempts at the same photo in front of where people were praying. On this floor, famous Buddhist monks were highlighted in glass cases on the walls.

Then we went to the last floor, which was outdoors and offered sweeping views of the temple grounds. Off in the distance, you could see the Big Buddha on the hilltop, another cultural landmark in Phuket. A small set of stairs led to a golden lotus flower inside a glass case in the central tower, donation money scattered all over the ground. Every so often, a loud explosion would startle me and I’d remember that it’s just firecrackers set off to show gratitude for answered prayers. This tower is called a chedi and it’s the most sacred and important part of a Buddhist temple. Supposedly, this temple holds the fragment of a bone from Buddha.

We descended the stairs and walked through all of the buildings on the grounds, even the smaller ones off to the side. Honestly, the small ones off to the side were some of the coolest parts because the crowds didn’t go there… there was either no one or just one or two Thai people inside. One building that we went inside had dark, hardwood floors, glass cases filled with pottery, and very realistic-looking statues of monks that people could pray to.

We walked through a garden to the temple itself, where people lit candles, prayed, burned incense, and stuck gold leaf to the Buddha statues inside. This area is called the viharn (assembly hall), and people pay their respects to two famous monks known for healing people with herbal medicine. Apparently people also go to this temple to ask for winning lottery numbers, health, good luck, and riches.

After we walked through all the buildings on the grounds of Wat Chalong, we checked out some tents nearby for clothes and souvenirs. The prices were much cheaper than Patong, and no one was there! They had a ton of cute sundresses for very cheap, so I had a little bit of a shopping spree. I bought five items, mostly dresses, that averaged out to less than $5 a piece. I also got some change purses with elephants on them to bring back for my roommates. Megan bought some clothes and souvenirs too.

One woman was running multiple tents (hers and her sister’s), as well as the smoothie booth. I saw her at her tent, asked if she ran the smoothie stand, she made me a smoothie, and there she was again at a tent down the row! Let me take a second here to emphasize how amazing the fresh fruit smoothies are in Thailand… Megan and I both got Mango drinks. We watched her cut up a fresh mango right in front of us, and put it into a blender with ice. Those were the only two ingredients: mango and ice. It was probably the best smoothie I’ve ever had.

Finally, I changed back into my hot-weather-friendly clothes, and we hopped into the cab. That night we got Indian food near our hotel, and they had live music going on next door. We met up with our chess friend Nassim and his friend Yasser, and watched the live music for a while. Since it was raining, we went back to the hotel lobby and played Cockroach Poker, a card game Tony and Tammy got me for my birthday. Yasser was so nice to run across the street and buy us all ponchos for our walk.

It was another fantastic day in Phuket spent with tigers, temple goers, sundress vendors, and friends. I already want to go back.