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Published: November 25th 2009
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I have been in Bangkok for the last 6 days and I have to admit, I have not truly taken advantage of the city until the last couple of days.
For the first four days here all I did was read, eat, sleep and I did manage to go out one night. It was very relaxing and just what I have needed for a break. It was nice to vacation from my traveling. Finally, I forced myself to become a traveler and tourist again.
My first priority here was to go to the Tiger Temple. This temple is about two hours away from Bangkok but not too bad of a drive. I am not really sure why they call it a temple because there were no buildings that I recognized as a temple. However, there were a ton of animals. Once I passed through the admission gate I noticed deer looking animals, camels???, and wart hog looking animals as well. To get to the tigers I had to walk down this hill and then as I turned this corner there was this large open area that was filled with tourist, workers and tigers. I was so excited. While I
was waiting in line I introduced myself to one of the people that I recognized from the shuttle and I am really glad I did, because he invited me along with him the next day to see some of the temples in Bangkok. I had meant to see these sites for days but to be completely honest, traveling by yourself requires so much self motivation and that can be really hard so sometimes you just do not see things and that sucks.
At any rate, I thought that after our initial introduction we could take each other’s picture with the tigers. However, this was not necessary. When it was finally my turn to touch the tigers there were two girls that took me around to see each tiger, one girl was to literally hold my hand the entire time around the large tigers and the other was to take my pictures. All of the tigers were totally lazy and completely asleep. It really made me wonder if they were on drugs or something. Or maybe the monks have taught them to meditate to keep them calm. As additional protection, beyond the drugs or meditation, each tiger was also chained
to the ground and had two additional employees to watch to make sure the tigers didn’t move.
From the grown tigers we moved on to the cute little baby tigers that were around 7 months old and were about the same size as me. These little guys were so much more awake and active then the bigger cats. I was given an opportunity to totally have a glamour shot session with one of the baby tigers. I felt so cheesy but they made for some good pictures. The monks interacted a lot with the little tigers. They would get them worked up and then calm them down. They gave them so much love and hugs and kisses. They feed them treats. It was a really sweet interaction that I was glad to see.
As an added bonus, that only 25 people are allowed to see a day, I was able to stay until after the temple closed and see the big cats play. The first event was that each one of us was allowed to walk along with the biggest tiger while holding his leash and the head monk was walking next to him. While this was happening the
employees were building an enclosure to protect us spectators from the tigers while they were playing. This protection enclosure was just chain-link fence paneling that had been leaned together to form a big rectangle; not the safest protection. The fence only came up to my waist/chest area.
Anyway, after we walked the big tiger we were all ushered into our protection area to watch the rest of the tigers play. It took them some time to get going but once the tigers finally woke up from their naps they were jumping, swimming, playing with toys, cuddling up on each other, fighting each other, trying to climb up the side of the hill. There was so much happening it was really hard to take it all in, but wow, I am telling you this will be a moment in my life that I will never forget. Amazing kitties those guys are!
The next day I met up with Benjamin to explore some of the temples in Bangkok. The first one that we visited was Wat Phra Kaew, which the Lonely Planet indicated to be the home of the Emerald Buddha, Thailand’s most revered Buddha. Honestly, I don’t think I saw
it. I really walked all over this place and I didn’t see it or signs pointing to it. At any rate the architecture was amazing. I think the building that stood out the most was this very large gold building, it just shined in the sun light. There was this walkway that went around the entire temple area that had the longest largest mural that I have ever seen. The detail and the paint that was used were truly beautiful to see. It looked like the mural was depicting old Thai battles, but I can’t confirm that. The old Grand Palace is in the same area as Wat Phra Kaew. I did see signs for the Grand Palace maybe I only saw the grand palace, and not the area where the Emerald Buddha is; I can’t tell you for sure. Gosh, I am a really bad tourist.
The only other temple that I saw was the Wat Pho, which is home to the largest reclining Buddha; and it was big. The Lonely Plant said the Buddha is 46 meter long and 15 meters tall, sorry you have the math. I have never seen anything like it. What was the
best part about this temple was there was not as many tourist there and it made it feel a lot more calm and peaceful which a temple should feel like.
It was a very nice afternoon in Bangkok. Now it is time for me to be traveler through Vietnam.
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