While in Thailand I rode an elephant and stroke a tiger as mentioned before. Before people now start shouting complaint and disgust about how evil all this is for the animals, then take a deep breath and first of all think about what we do to our animals and what we eat every day in the West before judging others.

Moreover it is one thing to read or see a documentary about it and to actually go and see it for yourself. I believe you can only ever really judge if you experienced it for yourself and therefore know what you are talking about. At the end of the day the person who writes the article will write it in the way to convince people from what they believe just as a camera can easily be turned a certain way to show only what you want to show people instead of the whole picture that may destroy your whole argument.

This was my main motivation to go and see the Tiger Temple because of all the controversy I have read online and the only way of really finding out what it's like is to see it myself.

First off though in Krabi was the elephant ride. The place where they offered those rides was very small and not very commercial at all. That was what I noticed first and liked about the place. The elephants were grassing around freely when not on a ride and not put to one side when not used for rides. At another elephant riding place near Bangkok this was the case. Elephants had been put on a leach and they stood there until they went on the next ride. Now this I did not like and did not make me want to go for a ride. But the place in Krabi was not like that at all. Yes there was a place where you could feed the elephants but only for a short time then they went off again. Moreover they did not separate mothers from their children here either. Nor was there any hitting of the animals going on either. None of the elephants went on more than 5 rides a day which is not too much considering how much they walk in the wild.

All in all it was no different to a horse ranch where you can go on a ride as well. It may not be all natural to them what they do on the rides and how they do the rides, but nobody ever questions the horse rides you can do everywhere. The horses need to be trained to do horse rides with beginners also, so where is the difference? Why is it ok with animals in our areas but as soon as people do it in the third and developing world we jump up and shout for animals rights? It does not seem right to me.

On another note just as horses and donkeys were used as a mode of transport in Europe and the USA before we had cars, in countries like Thailand people used elephants because they were around.

Moreover it needs to be put into consideration that elephants are endangered and in any other place than a sanctuary, wild life park or zoo it will be hunted for its ivory. Therefore as long as the elephant are treated in a sensible manner there is nothing wrong with elephant riding because here elephants are kept alive and looked after.

As with everything it is important to look things up because there are places where elephants are treated badly and where they are also used for circus and show performances.

Seeing the elephants close up was amazing. They are massive all around and it is kind of funny how their skin is so thick that they do not really feel a light touch of you. I was surprised that the ride was not anymore wobbly. Behind us was a female elephant with her little baby. It was only 4 months old but already looked huge to me. The baby was super cute.

Before our ride started our elephant had a good snack on a branch of leafs. He clearly did not like it as he threw it out again afterwards - right all over us. Interestingly he used his trunk for that. Thanks mate, I really felt like hand washing my clothes that day.

The Tiger Temple near Kanchanaburi in Central Thailand is as controversial as the elephant rides. At the temple you are allowed to be close up with Tigers. The so called animal lovers go on a hate tirade as soon as you mention you want to go there. But none of those have actually been there. I think the biggest controversy is because of the fact that you can go up to a tiger on a close up and many say they are drugged. Fact is they are not. The way it is done is simply that the times when you can be so close to them is when they are way too sleepy to care. Moreover the tigers were trained and most crew up in the Tiger Temple and therefore are used to human contact. They roam freely in the morning and after the cuddle session that only takes a couple of hours. It should also be mentioned that not all tigers are out there at the same time. It is only ever a small amount of them on a rotation.

The Tiger Temple is a sanctuary for tigers that were left beaten in the wild. When I spoke to a volunteer from Australia who worked at the temple she told me that just recently a tiger cub was brought to the temple after being given up by rich people who have the tiger cubs as pets.

Considering there are only just over 3000 tigers left alive in the wild it is a good thing that they are in the sanctuary. Yes it may now be more of a tourist attraction than a sanctuary but better this and tigers this existing on this planet that have them all extinguished because humans are hunting the tigers in the wild. Part of the tiger temples aim is to increase the number if tigers in the world which should be appreciated.

Lastly the reason why I don't see anything wrong with the tiger temple is because all the volunteers there are from western countries, animal loving and animal rights supporters and all that eco stuff. So if they are willing to volunteer here and see a good cause in it how bad can it be.

Everything the volunteer told me about the temple added up and I did not see anything that was cruel so for that I am glad I went.

After all the tiger cubs are super cute! Though I did not dare striking them because they are tigers after all. It was cool to be so close up with the big tigers too, but it was a bit too rushed because of the way it was run. One would walk from one tiger to the next holding and guided by one of the volunteers while another one takes pictures. This part was a bit odd and I did not really enjoy it. I would have preferred to only see one tiger but then spend some quality time with that tiger to actually get a feel for it.

My point is this who doesn't want to see a tiger or elephant close up especially if you are from a country where those animals can only be found in a zoo. Which brings up number too, in places like the tiger temple or a good elephant trekking tour the animals can roam wider spread out than his counterpart in the zoo.

So before we judge other on what they do with their animals we should clean in front of our own door step first.

And if tiger temple sanctuaries and similar elephant places help to keep the species alive and rescue them from extinction than I think it is a cause worth supporting.