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Today was a busy, busy day. For me it started at 6am when i woke, after only 4hours sleep to meet Bond at 6:30 to offer food to the monks. I had to ensure my shoulders and knees were covered.
There were 5of us who braved the early start, Ian, Marloes, Paula and Kevin. We walked with Bond to the local market and bought good packages for 30 baht or 1 dollar for the monks. It contained rice, curry, a drink and flowers. The market was busy with locals all eating their breakfast and the monks were stood outside. They varied in age and all wore different shades of orange robes. in thailand you can become a monk at any age and leave when you like. Bond has been a monk three times..he then showed us how to offer the food and receive the blessing.
First you take off your shoes as you need to be below the monk and barefoot like them (monks are seen as just as important as the thai royal family). Next, you kneel in front of them and place your hands together in prayer. The monk will then open his food/collection bowl to which you then place your offering. As a women, I had to try not to touch the bowl with my hands. After, you stay knelt and the monk gives a blessing to you. We all took it in turns to offer our food, I was worried I would get it wrong but when my turn came I did it just right!
Bond explained that the monks only take enough food for themselves to eat and that any food left goes to the local orphans. There are over 27,000 temples on Thailand so that's a lot of monks to feed!!
After the blessing it was breakfast and then time to chill until we set off for the tigers!!
I was full of nerves and excitement! This was what I had been looking forward to ever since I booked the trip. We met at 8:30 and took a bench taxi for about half an hour. Everyone was silent on the way there, most probably all wishing that they wouldn't get eaten!! The thought of going in a cage with tigers was pretty scary!
Once we arrived, we had to choose which package we wanted, the rest of the group chose one or two tigers but I went for three- the smallest (paid for a photographer), the big and small.
I was placed in a group with Julie, Alex and Hannah so off we set for the baby tigers first. When we arrived at the enclosure we had to take off our shoes and wear some others and wash our hands. The girls all went in but I had to wait for the photographer. Once he arrived in I went! I was so excited and they were so cute! I couldn't believe I was touching them! They were fairly active and wanted to roll around and play. Was slightly strange having someone take pictures of me and I hope they turn out ok.
After the small we saw some of the very young cubs being fed with a bottle of milk.
Next....the big cats! They were huge!!! Alex, Hannah and myself all went in together and we had been told not to touch the head or front of the cat.
We took it on turns to sit behind the cats and stroke them. We even lay on them! Some people think the cats are drugged which is why they are so docile but I can honestly say I don't think that's the case. Tigers naturally sleep for 18-20 hours per day and all the tigers have been hand reared from cubs. They were also sensitive to our touch as one tiger kept hitting me with its tail and back paws when I stroked it!
After the big cats myself and Hannah spent time in the smaller cats cage. The whole time I was in complete awe of these animals.
The taxi ride back to the hotel was very different as everyone was buzzing and chatting away, most prob in relief that we didn't get eaten!!
We then had a couple of hours to kill before going to the train station for our overnight train to Bangkok.
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