Touching Thai-gers

Two days on the island Ko Tao was enough for us. It’s a really beautiful island and there are some lovely beaches. But in the last few years it’s been totally taken over by dive resorts, and seeing as we couldn’t dive (my ear infections) and we both really wanted to, it was pretty depressing watching the boats come back in after a fun day under the water. That and the weather wasn’t really up to bumming around on the beach, and, quite frankly, we’d done enough of that over the last fortnight!

So back up to Bangkok for a night and a ‘doing day’ before heading up to Kanchanaburi, where we landed a nice room on the River Kwai. First day was a write off due to a severe case of travellers’ tum, complete with wrenching cramps and feverish aches and pains – not nice…

As soon as we felt better we decided to enjoy an encounter with some of Teej’s favourite animals – cats. Big cats. Very big cats.






Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampano (Tiger Temple) is home to 11 tigers. 7 years ago, a tiger cub was brought to the monastery having been rescued from poachers – she was dying as the poachers had already tried to cut her open to stuff her. The abbott took her in and looked after her, and soon after another several other rescued tigers were brought to him. The monks didn’t want to release them back into the wild for fear that they would be caught again, so for now they are kept in cages which do seem rather small.

But they are currently building a 3 acre island of forest for the tigers. There is a tiger research centre, and they are planning to release future generations of cubs back into the wild, once their mothers are capable of rearing them sufficiently enough to be independent. Each afternoon they are taken to a canyon area for their exercise – that’s when the tourists arrive. One by one we were led into the area and allowed to sit with the tigers, stroke them and have our photos taken. The more feisty ones were tied up, but I think the ones that are tame enough to be stroked were left free! I have to say I was very nervous, especially getting up close to two very hungry looking, playful cubs!

The monastery is set in a forest with loads of wild animals – boar, buffalo, peacocks, horses, cows… - and every evening the monks and volunteers leave out food. Apparantly this started when the abbott first arrived and he shared all his food with the animals. They just kept coming back for more and now they’re pretty much tame which I think is sad. But at least they’re well fed and not kept in cages – they just live in the forest and wander up to the temple when it’s feeding time! It’s like wandering around Longleat Safari Park! And the monk is just as crazy as Lord Bath…