Tigers GRRRRR!!!!

Ok, now as i promised a quick bit about the bus...and surprisingly it was an ok bus journey. Didn't take too much time, the border crossing was simple and so was the bus change. Nice and easy. Only downside was arriving in Bangkok in the middle of an epic thunderstorm, got a bit wet but it looked good!
Not too much to report on in Bangkok as i didn't want to spend more than i should so booked the bus for the next day to Kanchanuburi. Again, the bus journey was good...air con actually worked for once and only took two hours and met a Swiss guy on as well (sadly he isn't Roger Federer though as there are some good tennis courts nearby)! Checked into a place by the river called the Jolly Frog. Nice place, and good staff no Jolly Frogs though.
Spent the day exploring the town...not much to it. Kind of like Witham, but without the Chavs so a bonus when you look it...and obviously it is full of Thai people instead of the English. Anyways....walking to the bridge over the River Kwai i hear this growl from a market stall...thinking it's a dog i just carry on walking minding my own business...then it happens again. I turn around and i'm looking at a tiger cub. An actual tiger, not a fake one! Not a tigger toy that bounces on the spot! An actual baby tiger! It's 3 months old and already quite large and obsessed with my shorts and water bottle. After much clawing and biting i manage to get some good snaps of the thing before deciding to walk on to the bridge. After all that's the main thing to see in the town.
Now a bit of history...if i can remember it...bridge was built by Allied POW's, was meant to take 10months but took a lot less (gonna say 3months) and then got bombed by the Allies. You can still see some of the bomb damage on the bits that hold up the thing (no idea what they are called). Best thing though is that you can walk along the bridge. Didn't realise that trains still used the bloody thing! Luckily there are points where you can jump off the tracks (not into the river) and stay safe. Still a bit of a shock seeing a train that close though.
That's it for that day...other than exploring the night life with some westerners who were already off their faces by 6pm. Good times...poor buggers had work the next day haha!

So...to the next day...jumped on the back of a motorbike with the Swiss guy (Martin) and headed out. Now Martin rides bikes back in Switzerland, and boy did he test the bike out. Think we got up to 80km at some points. Granted, not the fastest, but when you only have a helmet and your face feels like it's peeling away it feels pretty darn fast. All good fun though and we arrived at our destination it what must have been a record time. Paid the entrance fee and headed to the show of TIGERS! Big tigers this time! Proper sized tigers all just laying down (chained to a tree though). You get to walk near them as they have all been hand reared so are used to humans (lot of speculation that they are drugged though). But they are protected from poachers etc, and get fed and watered and get a huge place to play most the day. Was great fun! They smelled a bit, and even though they were used to humans you could see in their eyes the look of "happy meals on legs" whenever someone got too close.
Got to play with some tiger cubs as well...for another, very high fee! Possibly one of the highlights though. They were 10 weeks old and slightly smaller than a grown Labrador. Not as smelly, and their growl was more of a meow than anything! Got to feed them as well! Mucho fun. But just as i was leaving and putting on my bag one of the cubs (called Apple of all names) decided what he was still hungry! So he jumped on my leg and started to bite. It felt like a dog having a good bite and he wouldn't let go until something more enticing was thrown across the cage. Cheeky bugger! Left some marks! But least i can now say i have been bitten by a tiger and survived!

Now to yesterday...a day of relaxation...so i will skip the really dull bits of me sat down reading in the sun by a river with cold drinks galore and get to the torture. All the time i have been here they have been pestering me to get a massage so i finally bowed to the pressure. I thought my first Thai massage at the start of the trip was painful. It was bliss compared to this one. She went to work on my body, and pulled it punched it, and did anything else that would cause pain. At the end i found out a reason why...i looked like her ex boyfriend. Evil bi*ch! Haha!

Right, must be off time is money and so is the internet use here! More relaxation for a while :-p

Laters

---

---