Kanchanaburi

We arrived back in Bangkok in the early hours of the morning but had no time to hang around if we were to catch our train to Kanchanaburi. However we ended up making it to the station so early we sat and watched other trains pass for two hours. The journey, which cost a mere £2, lasted around three hours and soon enough we were in the western town of Kanchanaburi.

Just like Chiang Mai the taxis seem more like military transport vehicles, and just like the rest of South-East Asia there’s a bunch of them waiting at every transport hub at all times. So it wasn’t hard to make our way to Sam’s House. This was the name of our hotel rather than the home of a local we might have befriended. Our room was fairly basic but being on stilts over the river made it rather special.

The main, or even only, reason for coming to Kanchanaburi was to visit the Tiger Temple which is loosely described as a Buddhist temple but in reality is a means to make the local Buddhists some extra money. We opted to make our own way there rather than be part of a tour as Linz had been looking forward to this more than anything and we wanted to do it right. Although there are some other animals milling around and I assume, even though I didn't see it, a temple of some kind, the main attraction were the tigers located in the centre. We headed straight for them where we were fairly disappointed to find all of the twenty tigers chained to trees looking fairly sorry for themselves as hordes of tourists posed next to them for photos. Obviously we joined them for a photo but soon the novelty of standing next to the tigers wore off and we couldn’t help but recall the rumours we had heard that tigers in this area of the world are often drugged up to allow tourists to get so close.

Although it looks like I'm hiding behind the tree I was actually told to stand there.
You can make out various other unhappy tigers in the background.

As well as the monks who ran the centre there were a number of European volunteers wandering around, and two approached us to explain the extra options available. Rather than just stand next to fully grown ones there was the opportunity to play with the youngest cubs or exercise the slightly older ones each for an extra £20. We chose to do both as the tigers entertaining the easily amused tourists in the main area was rather depressing and not at all what we wanted. Before we could enjoy our extra activities we had to endure watching the fully grown tigers forced to supposedly entertain the masses some more. Each of the adult tigers were detached from their trees and walked around the temple grounds while tourists could take it in turns to hold their chain for photos of them walking the big cats. So far the report of the Tiger Temple has been fairly negative which is due to a strange distrust I had of the monks there. I’ve been coming across monks for my entire trip but seeing the huge theme-park style entry gate to the “temple” had me doubting their spiritually from the off. However it did get a lot better after the dodgy start, although once again I found myself questioning the place when only after paying for the optional extras do you get to see a tiger look more alert and normal.

We detached ourselves from the horde and joined a smaller group of around eight people to enjoy our first activity; playing with the four month old cubs. We were taken to a small room and let loose on about seven tiger cubs about twice the size of an average house cat. There was an array of makeshift toys, such as bottles on the end of some string, which we could entertain them with and we were pleased to see the young’uns were more awake than their parents had been.

We were told that tigers like bright colours so I made sure not to wear any. However, my sock collection
left be dangerously vunerable below the ankle

Although we were having a great time we couldn’t shake the idea that these were tigers we were playing with. Even at four months they have teeth that could do serious damage to a human leg, and I won’t hide the fact that when one bundled into me from behind, without warning, I did panic rather a lot. After half an hours playing we had to feed them which involved getting worryingly close to their mouths with a bottle not dissimilar to one you would feed a baby with. Despite me being told how to position the bottle in their mouths my tiger insisted on doing it wrong and soon broke it resulting in me being covered in milk. Now I couldn’t help but think I was a bag of meat dripping in tasty milk surrounded by seven tigers who I’d been teasing minutes earlier with various toys. Forty-five minutes after entering the cub’s pen we left thinking it would struggle to be beaten by our second activity.

I'm soaking wet because it was raining all day, but I'm about to get much wetter as the tiger is seconds away from
biting through the bottle

We were led straight to the enclosure of about half a dozen one year old cubs that we were to exercise. Based on the description the volunteers had given us we would be encouraging the cubs to jump for toys and then whipping them out the way before they grabbed them which is both fun and a good work out for the tigers. This description is completely accurate however in reality the situation is quite a bit different. Firstly, like me you probably think a one year old tiger cub is fairly small and cuddly where as in truth they’re almost fully grown and could probably bite your face off. Secondly, I anticipated, being from a fairly strict country, that we would at the least be behind a fence or wall of some kind however it seemed the health and safety officer was out that day as there was absolutely nothing in between me and the group of face-eating cats.

Washing a tiger which, given how little it moved, may well have been unconscious for all I know

Before I come on to the details we were first allowed to feed a couple of the one years olds, however again these two tigers seemed a little docile for my liking. Despite this it is quite amazing to be able to feed a tiger chicken bits and even give it a bit of a bath. Following this we were led to the main enclosure which is via a gate and then a small tunnel. The tunnel wouldn’t have been a problem if it wasn’t very tight and didn't come with a tiger sitting on a rock at head height as if ready to pounce on anyone who came through the gate. Eventually we decided just to bolt it and we managed to run past without him taking a swipe at us. At this point I was having a great time but questioning where we were going to be doing the exercising of the tigers as we were walking towards the front wall of the enclose where there just seemed to be a pond for them to play in. I wasn’t left wondering this for long though as our guide casually asked “Do you want to get in the water?” This seemed a little odd but, in the spirit of just going for it, I tried my best to match her level of casualness with the response “Why not?”

We were handed a couple more makeshift toys (plastic bags on the end of sticks) and with little warning half a dozen tigers were literally sprinting at us, into the water and then vaulting into the air at our toys. This lasted for another 45 minutes which can only be described as the most amazing 45 minutes of my life. I have no idea why I felt safe in the water surrounded by the tigers but somehow I felt happy to continue to mock the tigers with my toys. At one point, because I had been left with the only toy they didn't seem to care for, I found myself almost jabbing a tiger in the head with my stick to try and achieve a reaction. What was I thinking! We never felt like any of them would attack us, but they were so keen to attack each other, right at our feet, that we could quite easily have got caught up in it.

A tiger is almost pouncing directly on us yet we're just smiling away. This was so surreal.

I'm smiling in this one because I've finally succeeded in annoying a tiger enough to
attack my toy rather than Linz's superior yellow one.

Writing this I’m finding myself frustrated at how impossible it is to get across how mind-blowing this experience was as it was unbelievably enjoyable yet at the same time quite frightening. Another aspect which added to the whole experience were the people watching from outside the enclosure, including the volunteers who had sold us the activity, laughing and appearing to question why anyone would do this to themselves. However, most of all, what added to the time spent with the tigers were the guides who did it with us. You would think people who did this every day would be used to it, but they screamed and yelled as much as we did making it somehow more exhilarating. Where else would it be ok for your guide to cower behind the customer as much as the other way round. There’s nothing else I can say about exercising the tigers except to reiterate how amazing it was and how much more we got out of the experience than we had anticipated.

We returned to our taxi, which had waited for us in the car park, both soaking wet and with incredibly contrasting views on the Tiger Temple. On one hand the optional extras had been by far the greatest things we had done so far but on the other that those cubs we played with would soon look as glum as the adults we had first encountered due to the monks seeming desire for profits. We were soon back at Sam’s House were we collapsed exhausted from the previous nights travelling in addition to our tiger exploits.

This lack of doing anything continued long into the next day only broken up by a trip to the shop next door to get a breakfast of “toasted sausage cakes”. Later on we headed into the road for that evening’s entertainment which Linz was very kind in letting me organise. Consequently we were soon sitting in an Aussie bar watching the Turkish Grand Prix, unsurprisingly won by Sebastian Vettel, followed by the first half of Arsenal versus Stoke. We would have hang around after our meal to watch Manchester United versus Chelsea but we had been getting some abuse from various Australians including the owner, called Crackers, who all wanted an Aussie rules game on the TV. Having argued in vain that football was better than Aussie rules we gave in and moved to another bar to watch the United game where Linz could at least be distracted by dessert.

We returned to Sam’s after our night of sports entertainment, which I must point out Linz was fairly entertained by, for our final night in Kanchanaburi. The following morning we checked out to start what was without doubt the worst journey I have had since leaving Heathrow which would include five forms of transport, around 24 hours, another trip to Bangkok and absolutely no leg room.