Tiger Temple in Thailand. The First Trirp

The Tiger Temple in Thailand  was  an amazing place. A Buddhist Monk started off by taking in a tiger cub and this grew to a number of tigers with a successful breeding program. There are also other wildlife there. Unfortunately there has been some recent controversy surrounding this Tiger Temple and it was closed down in 2017 due to suspection of illigal trade in wildlife. It appears that a new tigre zoo will be opening soon next to the Tigre Temple.  If you like tigers (and I love tigers), a visit to the tiger temple was a must do. I have visited the Tiger Temple twice.
Monks with th tigres
The first time was on a trip we did to the east - we, being my wife, sister and step son - the same group who did the Mahout course in Chang Mai. The second time I was on my own. I will do the trips in different posts as they were quite different experiences.
Nothing like scratching the tummy of a tiger
The first trip, with the group was a typical tour to the Tiger Temple. The Tiger Temple is quite close to the River Kwai and the bridge which was made famous by the movie "Bridge on the River Kwai". Some of the worst atrocities of the 2nd World War happened in this area where the Japanese basically worked British prisoners of war to death to build the railway line. (another story, another post!).
Pat the kitty

The typical tour to the Tiger Temple arrived after lunch and the masses of people move down to a an area surrounded by cliffs with a small pond filled with water. The adult tigers are chained to the rocks in the foreground and you can take turns to go and pat the tiger and get your photo taken. A very nice experience to pat a fully grown adult tiger. For a few Baht extra (quite a few!) you could go and sit by the really big male tiger and get his head put in your lap. My sister was the only one in our group who wanted a tiger in her lap!

Not quite so confident now are we?
There was a German lady who also wanted the tiger in her lap, but the big adult tiger would have nothing of it! She was placed in the correct position to get the tiger's head in her lap, but the tiger just refused! They would do a few other guests, no problem with the tiger. Then they would try her again. The tiger would just not put his head in her lap. It is really not that easy to force a fully grown adult tiger to do something he does not want to do! He is a really big boy! They tried a few times without success and the tiger was starting to get a bit upset, so she did not get a tiger in the lap. It could have been her perfume or something that the tiger did not like, or maybe the tiger just did not like Germans!

All in all a very nice trip. So much so, that I wanted a re-run. My second trip was a very different experience, but you will have to wait for that post to find out why!
I was really very upset when I heard the news that there had been problems with the Tiger Temple. It was a unique place, but I guess that money can corrupt just about anyone.

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