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After leaving Kanchanaburi, we drove 40km to a Temple called Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, also known as Tiger Temple.
It is basically a monastery but has now become a wildlife reserve caring for all kinds of animals including wild pigs, leopard, bears, goats, buffalo and finally its famous tigers.
Story has it that in 1999, the temple received its first tiger cub that had been found by villagers after its mother had been killed by poachers. No-one wanted to care for the cub so the monks resued the animal and welcomed it into the monastery. Now there are almost 20 tigers that live at the temple many of them have been born there.
Each day the monks lead the tigers down into a canyon where the general public can visit them. When we arrived it was all very strange. We arrived on a tour and were lead straight to the ticket booth. We bought our tickets and our guide told us that we could now enter the grounds of the monastery and head down to the canyon where we would be able to touch and take photographs of the tigers. Then the guide disappeared, just after we all had to sign a piece of paper saying they weren't liable for any injury or death as a result of an attack by a wild animal. It was if she said bye then good luck!
We tentatively walked towards the canyon not knowing what to expect. Then we saw there were about 10 tigers chained in the floor of the canyon. They all seemed very calm.
We were told the tigers were so relaxed because they had all been hand reared by the monks.We weren't too sure though, they all looked very sleepy. There was one tiger that if you paid extra you could have your photo taken with its head in your knee, however we saw the monks lift the tigers head and it seemed like a lead weight, we suspected it could have been drugged or something, could be wrong though!
Next we were taken one by one to have our photo's taken with the tigers. It was really scary! The tigers were so big and only a small chain separted them from us. We were able to sit behind them and stroke them, it was good but quite unnerving. We went around and had about 12 pictures each, Rich went twice as he said the first time he didn't really take it all in!
It was great to be so near to something so wild but also we felt a bit weird about it all as we couldn't believe that the tigers were so calm. All seemed a bit strange really but we got some great pictures so make sure you check them out!
Next stop Sukothai to see the ancient city
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