Kanchanaburi

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April 2, 2006

We took a nice, scenic train ride from Bangkok to the cute, little town of Kanchanaburi just three hours away.  Kanchanaburi is most famous for its role in World War II.  During the Japanese invasion of Thailand they forced many hundreds of thousands of local Thais, Burmese, and POW's to construct the Death Railway, so called because so many workers perished under the harsh and hurried construction conditions.  The bridge over the River Kwai is located just on the edge of town and was the focus of numerous bombing attacks by the Allied Forces, and yes, it is also a major motion picture.  Today the bridge has been reconstructed and visitors can either walk or ride across it.  The town itself is far past its hayday and tourists generally only visit for the day in large tour groups from Bangkok.

Train Tracks and Tiger Tails

Perspective
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Our guesthouse was a rustic, friendly place right on the river, with floating rooms and a restaurant.  They also had newborn kittens adding to the already numerous herd of cats roaming around the grounds, which were a major plus.

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April 3, 2006

Only a fifteen minute walk away from our guesthouse lay the infamous bridge over the River Kwai, and the tourist trap opened up before us.  The colors of the stormy sky reflected in the river, as shafts of sunlight poured down through holes in the clouds.  The beauty of the scene was offset by the vast expanses of crappy jewelry and ivory stores that surround this trumped up historical site.  We made our way across the bridge battling through the crowds to the other side.  The rain came and the people went.  Our visit took a turn for the better and we had a nice, calm walk back under the orange sky.

Peace
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April 4, 2006

Caroline's Birthday!  We dragged ourselves out of bed early, rented a green moto, and sped our way to the Tiger Temple an hour and a half north of town.  Upon arrival, Loren already knew he'd made a serious mistake by not wearing long sleeves, as his forearms grew pinker.

We walked through an oddly barren, rocky forest, past a small herd of buffalo wallowing in a slimy, green pond licking their nostrils and chewing their cud, and joined an already formed group of visitors.  The group was tended by a number of temple volunteers and monks, as about a dozen tigers passed in front of us on their way down to a small canyon for their "exercise and play" time.  None of the tigers were restrained.  The huge cats knew where they were going, and our safety was just a matter of preventing distraction and sudden changes of heart.

Sky Colors, Kanchanaburi
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Once we were all at the play area the sleepy tigers lounged in the shade of beach umbrellas, while the cubs frolicked in a pool at the base of a cascading waterfall.  The over 100 degree humid heat was enough to make anyone lethargic, especially nocturnal creatures wearing fur coats.  Us tourists were all kept behind a rope barrier and took turns being led to each of the lounging felines one by one.  We were allowed to stop and pat each cat for a minute, while a guide snapped photos with our camera.  The tigers allowed this worship, much the same way any spoiled cat allows its humans to dote on it.  We could not get over how big and powerful they were, even just lying there with their eyes half closed.  We each had our turn and came back speechless and beaming.

Wallowing in Slime
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We walked out of the temple, just the two of us, meeting a couple of small horses, who came over curiously and stayed for the pats.  We also checked out a vigilant elk, who was lying by the side of the road, his antlers protruding like a sturdy, barren shrub.  A deer barked in the distance (yes, they have barking deer in Thailand), calling her fawn to her as it yelped back with its prepubescent barking deer voice.  An old buffalo eyed us with boredom as it itched its shoulder with its huge backward horn, finally demonstrating the proper use for those cranial accessories.  We heard peacocks wailing in the distance and passed a few more elk on our way out of the walled temple.

Vigilant Elk
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All this may sound a bit farfetched, and like an awkward menagerie of creatures to be wandering freely within a Buddhist temple, rather than separately caged at a zoo.  This was our thought, too, but we did our homework before our visit and learned a few things about this unique place.

It is not unusual for monks to care for abandoned or injured animals, which has led to people often leaving such orphans at the steps of their temples.  This temple started off no differently, with their only unusual tenants being horses and buffalo, until the day someone dropped off two orphaned tiger cubs, whose mother had been killed by poachers.  The abbot embraced these new members and the temple became known to locals as the Tiger Temple.  More rescued animals kept arriving, and the temple's fame grew a bit out of proportion.  Visitors started showing up to the wat to see the uncaged tigers roaming the grounds, and this led to the inevitable money making schemes that follow in tourists' footsteps.  Foul rumors have since spread, including that the tigers are taken from their mothers and drugged in order to be a docile attraction for paying customers.  All of these rumors have been refuted by experts in big cat behavior, and indeed to our untrained eyes, nothing was amiss here except for some spoiling of wild creatures and an un-Buddhist attempt to make revenue, even if it is "for the tigers' new natural reserve", which has yet to be completed.  Anyone still unconvinced or wanting more pictures can just google "Tiger Temple Kanchanaburi" for more information.