Kanchanaburi

This morning we woke up at 6:30 and had to rush to get ready for our big day at Tiger Temple! Shawn’s new boss told us about this wonderful day trip about 2 hours North of Bangkok to enjoy tigers and elephants, among other things. Going into this trip I was very scared. We were told that we would walk with tigers and take pictures with them in our laps! I thought, Oh no, I don’t want to end up on youtube with a tiger biting my leg off! But we both were ready for a new adventure and so scheduled our trip. Our driver Natani and his son came to pick us up and we were off. The drive through Bangkok was interesting; around every corner there is a picture of the King. There’s no mistake, we will know who the King is if we ever see him. Our first stop in our trip was at a WWII cemetery honoring fallen soldiers that were POW’s captured by Japan. During the war, Japan invaded Asia and was using POW’s in Thailand to build a railway for supplies. One specific railway is now called Death railway. We then visited the River Kwai Bridge. It is still a working bridge but is very old and reminiscent of the start of the industrial age. After walking across the bridge we asked a man at the bottom of the boat to take us to the monkey school, he said that he could not because the police shut it down! We could’ve also taken a boat ride to a cave but we were running short on time and needed to see the tigers promptly at 1 to walk them! So we decided to take a small boat ride to the Floating restaurant and grab a bite to eat. We enjoyed a quick meal of stir fry green vegetables in gravy, spring rolls, and shrimp cakes. It was delicious but Shawn was more fascinated with the giant bumble bee we were afraid was going to sting us. It was the size of a quarter, no joke!

After lunch, Natani drove us to the tiger temple. We were very excited and had no idea what was in store for us. Entering tiger temple was like something out of Jurassic Park! To enter the temple, you had to drive through a giant tiger’s mouth! We paid to go in and received a map telling us where to go to walk the tigers. Shawn and I started walking and saw this huge crowd of people, we thought, nah we are going this way because we want to be first in line. So Shawn wanted to walk through a gate to left of the crowd and just as we were about to, we both said wait what if we end up walking into the tigers, we will be eaten. So…we went to the safe area where the people were. Walking up to it we didn’t even realize that the tigers were laying on the floor and all of the crowd was looking at them! OMG!  It was so unreal. I mean an actual tiger was laying down right in front of us.  So our Australian guide explained to us the rules, in his Australian accent, “use a firm hand, the tiger is walking you, you are not walking the tiger, the tiger may spray you (to mark territory) take it on the chin because if you complain he will turn around to see what is making all that fuss, and then go and buy two lottery tickets because it is good luck, mate!”

We got in single file line, were told to put our right hand firmly on the tiger’s back, hold the rope and walk. Shawn went first. My thought was if this tiger does anything crazy, I’m running and not looking back. He managed not to get eaten and the guides took great pictures of him. My turn. Oh Jesus, was I scared. But it all happened so quickly, that in that second I had to suck it up and place my hand on the tiger. Wow, there is no way to really explain it. These creatures are so majestical and yet so wild that their demeanor can change within a second and then you’re a gonner. We had the chance to walk the tiger down to the canyon twice safely. Once we got to the canyon, the guides tied the tigers to a chain and we waited for all the tigers to be brought down. As each tiger made its way to the canyon, you had to stand up, and look in the tiger’s direction because he needed to see that you were not a threat. When they brought the largest tiger down, he began to “stalk” instead of walk, which meant he was on the prowl. The guide said that his natural instincts kicked in and he was looking at something that he may have seen as a threat.  I was just so glad that the tiger wasn’t looking at us because it was just like in the tv shows, where the tiger stalks its prey and then pounces in one swoop killing the oblivious animal. The guide that was walking this tiger, knew what was happening and turned in front of the tiger and slapped him on the nose. Shawn and I were like oh Mylanta! What is he doing??? After all the tigers were situated, it was time to take pictures. We decided Shawn would be the VIP and hold the tigers head. Shawn had to walk holding the guides hand, and I had to walk with both hands on Shawn’s shoulders, I guess this is the way to not intimidate the tigers. So we sat next to a sleeping tiger, Shawn cuddled his  head and I stood beside. It was amazing. I can’t believe we got to hold a creature so wild and yet so calm in our hands. I know it is an experience we will never forget. Thank God we have this opportunity to travel the world and pursue amazing adventures.