Tigers!

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This morning I walked through Kanchanaburi old town to Wat Chaichumpol and the JEATH War Museum. It’s soooooooooooo hot!! And I can’t believe how dirty it is. I go back to get the boat, and as told knock on the window next to the parking sign. An old Thai woman flicks a towel at me and points down the road. I guess the bloke I need must already be at the pier then! He is…and I’ve just missed the boat. I spend the next ½ hour watching one man fishing off the pier and another old guy just letting the world go buy, while he gets to work on his 2nd (I think) big bottle of Chang beer.
In the afternoon it’s time to see the tigers. The first sight is a take your breath away moment. There are tigers. In front of me! I get my photograph taken with a tiger, touching a tiger! All the tigers have either been brought here as orphaned cubs or were born here and the attempt is to keep them as wild as possible, although they can’t be released into the wild as they wouldn’t be efficient hunters. So while some of them just lie around dozing, others are prowling around, and some are a bit grumpy and growling. As you would if you kept being woken from your afternoon snooze to have your photo taken. The monastery has now opened a wild animal rescue centre so they have lots of different animals - deer, wild boar, horses - some who just turn up at mealtimes, and others who choose to stay. On the way back I see a new form of transport to add to those already seen & sampled (car, van, bus, cycle, motorbike, horse, camel, train, up and over, pick up, elephant), a motorbike with a trailer attached to the side. The one I photograph, whilst I’m in my up and over, has a woman perched on the edge with a dog on her knee!

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