We've all seen it right? That random friend who goes to Thailand and comes back with a crazy photo of themselves petting a tiger? Well maybe you haven't seen it, but I have, and I knew that if I ever made it over there, I was going to be that random friend. So as silly as the whole idea sounded to me, I signed up for a trip to the famous Tiger Temple. When in Rome...
So after about a 2 hour bus ride from Bangkok we arrived at the Temple!
The entrance was a little hokey, but once inside, they had a series of mural which told the story of how the Tiger Temple came about. Basically, one day a group of monks rescued a tiger cub from a poacher and nursed him back to health. Enjoying the company of their new pet, they started rescuing more, and then they all started breeding, creating a nice happy family of tigers. Then apparently one day, the monks got the bright idea that they could monetize this, and opened their doors to the public. Ok fair enough.
We grabbed our tickets, signed some little waiver, and marched inside. As we passed through the entrance, it opened up into a large field area with several packs of animal roaming about. There were cows, deer, pigs, and some other weird things but no tigers. Was this their food?? Strange. Just then a herd of cows came meandering by.
And then we stumbled upon a pack of wild looking pigs, with a few small piglets in tow. The piglets started straying a bit from the larger ones so naturally I saw this as an opportunity to try and catch one. However they were a heck of a lot quicker than expected, and I gave up on that idea after a couple attempts. We saw that there were some enclosures off in the distance and decided to scope them out. Bears. While cool, it was not what we came to see, so we started asking around where the heck the tigers were. Someone pointed us in the general direction and also notified that the tiger interaction area would be closing shortly. We hightailed it over and found it, finally!
Wow there were 12 - 15 tigers in the interaction area along with dozens of staff, monitoring everything. Strangley absent though were the monks. I only spotted one the entire time. Intrigued by this, I started chatting with one of the staff and they noted that they were all volunteers from around the world, some staying for a couple weeks and other for months at a time. I got the impression that they did most of the work around the joint, especially the grunt work. Those monks had a good thing going.
We finally reached the front of the line, and one of the staff girls grabbed my hand and led me around, as they did all the other guests. There were literally three staff for every visitor inside the interaction area. One to hold your hand and guide you around, one to take pictures, and the other I'm not really sure about. Although I was glad he was there just in case one of the tigers went rogue as it decreased my chance of being the one to get eaten. One by one we went around and got to visit with each of the tigers. It was really cool! Especially because there were some really big ones. And they were all super chilled out so I felt comfortable getting right in there and giving them some lovin. After about ten minutes we had met with all the tigers and proceeded to the exit where my camera was returned. To my delight the photos came out really great, and a small circle of envy gathered around me when I realized I had one specific gem, with the tiger baring his jaws and reaching up toward the camera.
Awesome! Heres some of the others, which were also really good :)
Scolling through these for the first time was a ball, and made the trip out there absolutely worth it.
A few of the people in our group wanted a second go-around, but since I was overly thrilled with the photos I'd gotten, I chose to hang out and chat with some of the staff instead. I was curous as to whether there had ever been any incidents, and as to why the tigers seemed so subdued. The staff noted that there really hadn't been any incidents, as the cats have had tons of human interaction since they were tiny cubs, and didn't see us as a threat or more importantly a food source. They also noted that of the 100+ tigers they have on site, those in the interaction area were the most well behaved of the bunch, and on top of that were fed shortly before they were able to interact with visitors. The volunteers that I talked to seemed well educated and many were pursuing or had degrees in the biology. They seemed to really care about the tigers and were enjoying their time at the Temple. That made me feel good, as I had heard rumors that the cats were drugged so that they were real lethargic with the visitors, and that it was all just a big money making scheme. Of course that may all be true, but its not the feeling I came away with. Surely with all the volunteers coming and going, someone would have blown the whistle if they had witnessed or even sensed any foul play. At least you would think.
So yeah, overall it was pretty awesome. A bit of a random place with all the other different animlas just roaming freely about, and I never actually saw any sort of temple, but to visit with the tigers was a really unique and fun experience. And now I am that random friend with the cool tiger pic ;)
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