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Published: September 9th 2007
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Yikes!
Tiger Temple was amazing! The train from Malaysia lumbered into Bangkok station at 10:30am, only one hour late after a 21 hour trip - not bad. By this time, I felt I knew Niav, the Irish girl I travelled up with, quite well! Upon arrival in Bangkok station, she went to stay at her friend's place and I went off to the infamous Khao San Road. I declined to share a taxi with some Irish guys who were already on their third beer at 10:30 in the morning - I mean really!
I spent most of my days running around doing errands, something which Bangkok is particularly useful for. On the first night, I sought out one of Scott and my favorite restaurants. It is on a very small back street, a little off the usual tourist track. I was amazed, therefore, when I bumped into Chris, a guy Scott and I had hung out with for many weeks in Goa, India two years prior! He still hadn't gone home, and was working in Thailand as a computer teacher. We spent the next few nights catching up over a Chang beer or two. Last night, we both met up with Niav, the Irish girl
from the train, and some of her friends.
Amongst the errands, I did manage a day trip to the floating markets and tiger temple, the perfect chance to try out my new camera (yes, I ended up buying a new and definitely NOT waterproof one - long story!).... It was an amazing day. I was on a bus with an irish girl travelling alone, a Canadian guy travelling alone, and 7 English girls travelling as a group - that must be tough, but they seemed to get on remerkebly well!
The floating markets were fun and provided us with the typical tourist-type photo. Next stop was a snake show - not for animal activists, but quite educational and very fun! We sat in the front fow and as soon as the snakes appeared on stage, all of the girls leapt on their chairs or ran away completely. It was a lively show, with the finale being a mongoose wrestling with a cobra - fair fight at least, but as I say, not exactly animal friendly. At least they stopped the fighting after only a short time. After lunch, we stopped at the historic Bridge Over the River Kwai,
What a job!
The monks at Tiger Temple are so comfortable and playful with the tigers! which was still the same as when i saw it 7 years ago, apart from the addition of a Disney-style tourist train, painted bright yellow!
The highlight of the day, however, was Tiger Temple. This monastery began taking in injured animal several years ago, and got its first tiger cub in 1999 when it was brought to the monks after being orphaned by poachers. The monks took in the tiger along with the other animals it was collecting and, over the years, more and more tigers were taken there to be cared for. Currently, the monks are breeding the tigers and working on a program to train the cubs to be set free when they are old enough. Although the whole experience seems like one big photo shoot, it is actually really special to be so close to real tigers, touching them and walking them on a leash! I would definitely recommend Tiger Temple!
I am still in Bangkok, but will be leaving in half an hour for the airport to catch my flight to Nairobi, Kenya to meet Scott!
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kathleen Passmore
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The class (especially your former students) LOVED seeing you with the tigers. We had a sentence about tigers and it fit right in! It sounds like you're having a wonderful trip! Take care, Kathleen and students