Super Furry Animals

You won't believe this as we've done it and still cannot believe it!
On our way to Phuket, we stopped off at Kanchanaburi. This is most famous for the Bridge over the River Kwai, Death Railway, waterfalls and caves. However, we were attracted by stories we'd heard from other travellers of something far more exciting. The Super Furry Animals (does anyone remember that band?) were playing at the Tiger temple!
This is in fact a Temple run by Buddhist monks, who in 1999 first adopted an orphaned tiger cub whose mother had been killed by poachers on the Burmese/Thai border. This led to more tigers and other animals being donated to the monks for them to look after. We had heard that it was possible to go with regular tourists to see the tigers, stroke them and have your photograph with a tigers head on your lap. However, it is also possible to "volunteer" for an early morning session with the tigers to feed them and tire them out ready for the tourists in the afternoon.
We arrived early for the afternoon session and were fortunate enough to get time with the tigers without the usual crowds. We played with 7 week old tiger cubs, walked the adolescents and stroked very carefully the rather large and ferocious adults (weighing over 300 pounds). Later in the afternoon, the tigers are walked down to a canyon where you can have your photograph taken stroking them or with their head on your knee. This was a fantastic afternoon and we would strongly recommend this to any animal lovers. It really is a fabulous experience.
Having volunteered (but you do have to pay) for the active morning session, we arrived at the Temple at 7am with only seven other volunteers. We were asked to bring a fruit donation as part of the morning ritual was taking breakfast with the monks in the Temple. The Abbott and the monks would walk along the line of volunteers taking the food gifts. The Abbott was particularly fond of strawberries and cherries. The Temple breakfast for us was a new experience not being Buddhists. We then followed the monks into the Temple where we found four adolescent tigers and four cubs. The volunteers sat in a circle and were given the four cubs to play with. We each also had an opportunity to bottle feed the adolescents. All in all, we had about an hour playing with the cubs whilst being being blessed by the monks over breakfast. It's not every day you have a breakfast like that!
After this, we walked the adolescents and the cubs back to their pens. The cubs were put away and we walked the adolescents down to the canyon for "play" time! One rule is never to walk in front of a tiger, as they will see you as a toy and "play" with you! In the rush to get to the canyon, Garry got in front of a loose tiger and was duly mauled, however no damage was done! The tigers then playfight for about an hour with each other in the canyon pool. You wouldn't believe how much they love playing in the water! Our role was to form a human barrier across the edge of the pool to stop them running off. This is part of their training. The photographs don't entirely capture what a brilliant experience it was.
We then walked these kids back and this time Alison got mauled, but no damage done. A quick wash and brush down of the tigers and then we got the big boys out!
They are huge!
The same routine, walk them down on leads to the canyon for playtime! Trust us, no-one got in front of these guys! Again, the photos do not do justice to how exciting it was. At the end of this playtime, the really big tiger found his toy (half a basketball) and just like all kids, he didn't want playtime to finish! He wouldn't give up his toy and in fact hid round the back of the rocks with it and then he wouldn't come out of the water. You should have heard him roar. He was only playing, so the handlers said! Eventually, they got him out of the water and got his toy off him. They had to run after him to catch him and there was a bit of a banging of handlers heads. One of the other volunteers grabbed hold of Alison when he let off another roar.
When he was finally out of the water, they put his lead on and he was as good as gold.


This tiger wanted his tummy tickling.
He really did want his tummy tickling.
In the end he got his own way.

This is the big fella that wouldn't come out of the water. More about him later.
Same big fella, enjoying some tlc.
Just to show Garry wasn't scared of him.
Go on - stroke me.
That's better.

I like being stroked in the afternoon, when I'm tired and my tummy's full.
This is during breakfast in the Temple.
Look at the expression on that face.
Seven week old cub for breakfast.
These are not teddy bears - real live tiger cubs sleeping during prayers.

This is the tiger Garry fed. Not sure what was in the food but it went a bit wappy during prayers.
How cute is this? See the blue eyes?
When you train a tiger to walk on a lead, you have to pull its tail to keep it walking on the right track. Can you see that Garry has it by the tail!
A better behaved tiger, doesn't need its tail pulling.
Two adolescents playfighting.

Adolescents playing "tig" in the canyon pool. They absolutely loved it, playing non stop all the time. Stalking each other, chasing each other and fighting each other.
They like playing ball. The one at the front is pulling tongues.
Tiger on tiger action.
What a left hook by the tiger on its back.
Another strong left hook. Seems to be that when your opponents got you down, the answer is to hook them.

They were amazingly not afraid of getting very very wet.
He forgot to left hook his opponent and found himself under water.
Have you seen the size of those paws?
This is the big fella when he wouldn't give up his toy. What about that for a sulk?
Sometimes, they would dive off these rocks into the water, on top of one another. We never quite managed to get the shot though.

Oh, and by the way, we did go to the Bridge and it looks like this.

Now we are off to take part in the Phuket regatta 24th - 27th July.

Pleased to hear that Hamilton had another win.