There are those very rare occasions in Life when something seems too good to be true and it isn't. Today was one of those occasions.Flying from Singapore to Bangkok on Thai Airways, Huey flipped through the in-flight magazine and came across an article on Wat Luang Ta Bua Yanna Sampanno, better known as "The Tiger Temple." At this Buddhist monastery in 1999, a young tiger abandoned when its mother was killed by poachers was adopted and the monks began to raise it. Word spread quickly, and soon other abandoned or unwanted tigers were adopted at the monastery. In an effort to continue to care for the tigers and to build better facilities for their housing, research, and interaction with the tigers, the monastery began accepting donations in exchange for photo opportunities and physical interaction with the tigers. Needless to say, a place like The Tiger Temple becomes a tourist haven (or trap, depending on your point of view) quickly. And who are we to buck the trend?
Upon our return from Chiang Mai last night, we booked a basic car and driver for 10 hours to take us to The Tiger Temple and other attractions in and around Kanchanaburi. After breakfast, we practically ran down to the porte coche expecting to be whisked away in a Toyota Camry. Instead, we were informed that we had been upgraded (again!) and would be rolling up to the big cats in a Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan. (We, of course, said "OK.") Huey worked on this blog as we drove, while Robin read and napped. The two-and-a-half hour drive from Bangkok took us through a number of small towns and villages, none of which managed to escape the influence of Western culture, no matter how traditional or provincial they appeared. We saw KFCs, 7-Elevens, and Esso (Exxon) stations in almost every town, and as in the US, McDonald's and Starbucks are omnipresent.
The turnoff for The Tiger Temple was marked with a not-so-special billboard, like any you'd see along the roadside driving through Florida. Continuing down the road toward The Tiger Temple, our anticipation mounted, and though we’re not sure what we expected to find once we arrived there – thirty foot walls with guard towers and snipers with tranquilizer darts? Exxon and Kellogg’s billboards? Siegfried? – the entrance to The Tiger Temple was not as exciting as what was inside. We paid the fee and were directed to walk through a grove of trees that lead to the action. Emerging from the trees, we saw a monk and a volunteer walking with a full grown tiger in the direction of Tiger Canyon, followed by a group of guests. As they passed, three more tigers came in to 
view tethered to trees in a shaded area, waiting to be walked down to Tiger Canyon. We took our place in the queue of guests waiting to escort a tiger to and interact with the tigers in Tiger Canyon, and as we joined the queue, we casually passed well within pouncing distance of the lounging tigers, as if they were our own cats Stanley and Stella. Our turn came to follow a monk and volunteers to Tiger Canyon, and each of us had the chance to
go to the front of the group with the monk and walk alongside the tiger, while a volunteer grabbed our cameras and took pictures for us.
Once at Tiger Canyon, all of the tigers – about 10 or 12 of them – were tethered to trees or otherwise secured and volunteers tended to and played with them, as one would play with a house cat laying in the sun. And just like a house cat in the sun, these big cats became extremely relaxed and far more docile. It was at this point that we were permitted to get “up close and personal” with the tigers, and that’s just what we did. Both of us had the opportunity to not only pet several tigers, but also to 
get down on the ground and interact with them, in some cases, wrapping our arms around them or laying their heads on our laps.
If The Tiger Temple sounds like a petting zoo for big cats, that’s exactly what it is!
The experience was mind-blowing, like nothing either of us have ever done, on the VacAsian or at any other time. The experience is made even more special when we consider that we walked and sat and posed for pictures with and among as many as a dozen tigers, but at no time did either of us feel the slightest bit of fear or apprehension. Make no mistake: these ARE wild animals we spent the day with, wild animals with all the teeth and claws and innate tendencies they were born with. But the tigers at The Tiger Temple are raised by the monks, who treat them at all times with the dignity
and humility and respect for their power and pride that the tigers deserve, so the tigers grow up not fearing humans. The tigers live and play and eat and sleep in a very tranquil and angst-free environment, and the monks and volunteers work hard to make sure that nothing disturbs that environment. As such, the tigers learn to treat the monks, the volunteers, all other humans, and the other animals at The Tiger Temple in the same gentle and peaceful way they are and expect to be treated. It’s a careful balance that works very well at The Tiger Temple.
And speaking of other animals, The Tiger Temple is home to many other species of indigenous animals, all of which roam freely about the grounds, including deer, cattle, sheep, pigs, and horses. All of them share the tigers’ calm demeanor and rapport with humans. For example, as we watched a herd of cattle pass us in the grove as we were leaving, one of the younger members of the herd broke away and nonchalantly walked up to Huey (who incredulously captured video of the encounter), as if asking for directions. (See video below.)
Our driver was waiting with the car on when we came out of the front gate, so we jumped in to the VERY COOL car, where he offered us chilled face towels and bottled water and asked where we wanted to go next. We told him we wanted to see Erawan National Park and its renowned waterfall. He agreed to take us there and also suggested that we might enjoy visiting the nearby Elephant Camp. We already had the makings of a Wild Animal Encounter Theme Day developing and if there’s one thing HueBin enjoys, it’s a good theme day. (COMING SOON: Wear Your Shoes On The Wrong Feet Day and Guess Your Co-Workers’ Weights Within 50 Pounds Day.) So Elephant Camp it was!
The relatively short drive to Elephant Camp took us through small towns and residential neighborhoods before we turned down an unpaved road that lead to a stream or tributary. Our driver jumped out, spoke to the proprietor in Thai, and motioned for us to come on out. We paid
the fee and were directed to the top of a platform next to a clearing in which a half dozen or so Asian elephants were corralled. We stepped off the platform and on to the canopy on the back of one of the elephants and we were off. Our ride, which lasted about 45 minutes, took us “over hill and dell,” in and out of the murky stream, and through various patches of dense vegetation. The latter, of course, was at the elephant’s election – did you know elephants eat in excess of their body weight each day? – and we were rather entertained as the elephant driver, who sat in front of us just behind the elephant’s neck, alternated between instructing the elephant when and where to move and submitting to the elephant’s gastronomic whims. What was NOT entertaining was the oppressive heat and humidity and the sheer numbers of bugs we managed to attract (probably with some help from our pachyderm pal). We are pretty sure we were sampled by every bug in Kanchanaburi and that bugs from neighboring towns dropped in to check us out too. When it was over, we almost literally jumped off the elephant’s back and ran for the sanctuary of our climate-controlled sedan.
Right about now, a cool, beautiful waterfall sounds like just the ticket, doesn’t it? That’s what we thought.
We told our driver we were now ready to go to Erawan National Park, only to have him tell us that the park closed in 45 minutes and it would take us almost a half hour more than that to get there. That being the case, you may wonder (as we did) why our driver didn’t take us to the waterfall FIRST, then bring us to Elephant Camp. Our guess is it had something to do with the conversation our driver had with the proprietor of Elephant Camp, in Thai and out of earshot, when we arrived there. In other words, there may have been some “enticement” for him to bring us to Elephant Camp, while there was no admission, and therefore no similar enticement, at Erawan National Park.
Our next stop was The Bridge on the River Kwae, on the way to which we encountered a group of wild monkeys by the roadside. (They appeared to be either missionaries or hitchhikers. In either case, we didn’t stop.) Also known as “The Death Railway Bridge” and also in Kanchanaburi, the bridge is the subject of the multiple Academy Award-winning movie of the same name. This famous World War II site of numerous Allied attacks during the Japanese occupation of Thailand has been rebuilt several times
and still carries railroad tracks across its span. It is a major tourist destination, and since you can’t swing a tourist's camera without hitting one, there is – you guessed it – a market adjacent to the bridge. Never one to pass a market without darkening its door, we stopped “to look” and walked away with a handful of goodies.
Our “entrepreneurial” driver returned us to the hotel, where we showered, dressed, and enjoyed fruity drinks at the 63rd floor rooftop Sky Bar. (Original, hunh?) The views were amazing and the night was cool and comfortable. From there, we went up in to the dome atop our hotel to the Italian restaurant Mezzaluna. Mezzaluna is the kind of place that suffers under the self-fulfilling prophecy in which the prices bear no rational connection to the amount or quality of food you get, so nothing is as good as it 
should be. We scratched our heads, paid our inflated check, and moved on. At this point, we hoped our “old faithful” Café Mozu could renew our faith with a particularly appealing dessert (or desserts). No such luck.
We packed it in and returned to our room for the night. Tomorrow is a very special day, a day of which Robin has seen a few and of which Huey is about to experience his first of many.
HINT: There’s a CAKE named after it.
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