Lee had been here before in 2002 and so, recommended the place as it was run by Monks. We even did a bit of forum searching and writing on the Lonely Planet’s Thorntree (an essential website for any would-be backpacker) and although there were some mixed reviews, we decided to go here anyhow.
On arriving at the zoo-like entrance, we were quickly and abruptly told by one of the security guards that we couldn’t film anything on our camcorder and were requested to leave our tripod at the main gate as this was not permitted inside the place. Thank God for that – we looked like stupid-and-overzealous-happy-snappers with that thing. The thing that confused us was, we were told to put the camcorder in our bag. It was nice meeting those forever trusting security guards.
Anyhoo, after a 15 minute walk in the roasting sun and unbearable humidity, we arrived at the tigers.
To say that these massive and gorgeous creatures were amazingly stunning in all their glory, majesticly gracious in their prideful walks, and overwhelmingly beautiful as they watched us approach… would be a complete lie.
The Monks had all but dissapeared – but they left one behind – he was obviously a unsociable Monk or smelled, or, he was the kid that never got picked for football at playtime. But he did have friends – apart from the tigers, he had about 20 human friends. All dressed in illumonous green t-shirts (the public are not allowed to enter the tiger temple with any bright coloured clothing and so, have to purchase some over priced baige and cream shirts/trousers etc - are the tigers colourblind now?) and the majority of the sales peeps were speaking with rather annoying North American sales-men/women voices trying to claw an extra 1000 Baht out of our pockets for a professional (the loosest and most innapropriate sense of the word professional ever) picture with the tigers.
The tigers (in our opinion – for legal reasons) were out of their furry faces – they were sedated like nothing we’ve ever seen. Even Lindsay, after copious amounts of alcohol and no sleep for 5 days has more life in him.
Simply. We were disgusted.
Queues of at least 150 people built up as we were leaving. That meant that the furry pussy's had to endure non-stop petting and prodding for hours on end. A pure shame.
If we can stop one person from visiting this appalling place and further funding this joke of a circus just by reading these comments, then we’ll be forever happy.
We did however, tickle a tiger. Maybe it was a good thing that they were all drugged up (our opinion) because it would have been a nightmare if the pussy we tickled was tickly and took umbridge to our gesture of belly rubbing.
There were around 10 tigers in all. Some bigger than others, some more “tired” looking than others, but all were pretty much just lying there getting picture after picture taken. For us this was not a pretty sight, even if we were now part of it.
We got a picture taken and a video with our smuggled in camera which the guides took without complaint and videoed the action for us. If anything the footage shows why you should probably not go to this sort of place. That’s one good thing we can take away with us. The other, we did indeed complete a Challenge. Even if it was not in the manner we had expected.
On a lighter note though, Frank met a nice Monk who has a few tiger cubs. Our little gnome buddy sat down for a chat and gave his opinion to the Monk on the sanctuary and what changes could be made for the better.
Apparently they are opening a tiger Island in the sanctuary where the tigers can roam free without chains. Frank said this was a great idea. He just hopes that certain tigers will not be taken off Tiger Island for the tourists to continue to snap away every afternoon.
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