After the Bridge, we headed to the biggest highlight of our entire trip -- The Tiger Temple!! Now, before I proceed, I should give you some background information about this temple. About twenty or so years ago some local Thai people found a sick wild pig and gave it to a group of Buddhist monks. They successfully nursed it back to health and because of it, their temple became a haven for sick, injured and orphaned animals including baby tigers whose mothers were killed/captured by poachers. Twenty years later, the monks take care of around 80 tigers, from newborns (the tigers are so happy there that they are having babies of their own) to adults. The tigers have never tasted blood -- they eat only cooked chicken -- so they are quite tame. Because all the tigers have been hand-raised by humans, they have been imprinted and thus cannot survive in the wild but they are perfectly content to have company! And I honestly have to say, I have never seen such happy and well-loved animals... Basically, our trip to the Tiger Temple was a chance to be a tiger trainer for a morning. We fed, washed, played with and walked the tigers. It was wonderful!!!
Part of the fee for entering the Tiger Temple was bringing rations for the monks' once-daily meal. Special Agent Charlie promised that he would pack appropriate food. Sarah and I joked that it was probably good we weren't responsible for food shopping because we would probably buy the monks sandwiches and cake. After all, what do you buy for a monk?
us in front of the food
Come to find out, cake and cookies are appropriate! Charlie said he always brings sweets because they love them. So, while other guests were passing out bags of rice, chicken, veggies and such, we were handing out red-bean filled pancakes and iced bread. The trick though was to not make eye contact, not touch the monk (girls can't touch them), and remember to bow in Thai-style greeting all while balancing on one's shoes.
While the monks ate their breakfast, we fed the babies bottles and then it was our turn to eat. That cup of coffee I was hoping for never appeared but the 7:30 am SUPER SPICY chicken did the trick!
As for the tigers, I guess you might want to see a few. In an attempt to show as many as possible (we had over 300 photos each by the end of the day) in as short of a period of time I made a video.
(And yes, I am very aware and that tigers and lions aren't the same thing. The song just seemed the most appropriate ;-)
Don't you want one???
Other animals at the temple (though perhaps not as exciting!)
the resident Asian Black Bear
a cow
deer
wild squeally pigs
And because I can't end this post with pigs, here are two of my favorite shots from the day!
