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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for Tigers in Ranthambore

Image
Spotted deer. All my photos The star of the Indian wildlife reserves must be Ranthambore. This is a massive area of some 392  square km and it is a great place to look for Tigers. This was my third trip to look for wild Tigers, so, hopefully, 3rd time lucky. My first attempt to see wild Tigers was in Chitwan National Park in Nepal and the second effort was Jim Corbett Reserve in India. Came close in both reserves, but just saw beautiful tiger tracks. Ranthambore is close to the town of Sawai Madhopur in Rajastan. Apart from the main attraction - the tigers - Ranthambore is also a famous heritage site with various ruins within the boundaries of the reserve. Local gathering wood outside the reserve Tiger painting at the train station My trip started with a hotel close to one of the railway stations in Delhi. All of my previous trips to India, I was doing consulting for companies in India, and I had only been accommodated in top of the range hotels, so this was my first
Read more

The Embassed Elephant

Image
Charging elephant - not my photo Yet another elephant story! Anyone would think I like elephants. Well, I do. They are amazing animals and I just have a few very interesting elephant stories to tell you. Just wait until I start on tigers! I love tigers. In fact, I pretty much love all animals and any travel option which includes looking for animals is right up my ally! Now, an elephant story from the dim and distant past! Many many years ago in a kingdom far far away, there was an elephant. No - back to the real story. Many years ago I was working on diseases of fish and we (I was working at Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute) had a meeting and we invited one of the world leaders in fish diseases from the UK to the meeting. This meeting was held close to Lydenburg (where many of the trout farms can be found). The director of Veterinary Services was also attending this meeting and as we were quite close to the Kruger National Park, we decided to treat our overseas guest to a visi
Read more

Jaguars and Macaws - A trip to the Pantanal in Brazil

Image
Wild Hyacinth Macaw Woodpecker - one of the many birds seen The Pantanal is a massive wetland area in Southern Brazil. It covers some 190 000 square kilometres and much of it (about 80%) is flooded during the wet season. Most of the animals which can be found in the Amazon basin can also be found in the Pantanal, but they are generally a bit easier to see in the Pantanal as there is a lot of open spaces. Much of the dry land in the Pantanal is actually farm land with bits of indigenous forest. The Pantanal is  also one of the best places on the planet to see jaguars in their natural habitat. Looking for Jaguars in the Pantanals have become high on the wish list of the affluent Eco-travels and is currently "the trip to do" . This has made trips to see the Jaguars really ridiculously expensive. I managed to find a much more reasonable trip after spending many hours on the Internet! If you look hard enough you will find what you are looking for! After doing some work
Read more