Sa-Wat Dee Kaa Tiger Temple!

Sa-wat dee kaa = hello!

Today was Tiger Temple for a day with the tigers… YEA!

There is a Buddhist temple that takes care of tigers (about 46 to be exact) that have come from the jungle as orphans from poachers, etc. It started small as these usually do, and has grown over the last decade into Tiger Temple. We started the day by being picked up at 5 a.m. (it’s a 2.5 hour drive from Bangkok), and visited a war cemetery first… apparently very near the temple is where there was a lot of action during World War II.

The cemetery had mostly British, Dutch, and Australian soldiers that were prisoners of war held by the Japanese there in Thailand in war camps. They were captured and sent there to build a railway, nicknamed “The Death Railway” as it claimed over 100,000 POW lives in the course of one year due to poor treatment, malnutrition, and diseases like malaria. The cemetery was beautiful, very well kept, and the Thai government had donated the land for the soldiers to be buried there. Each soldier had a plaque headstone with their name, the insignia of their corresponding unit/division of military service, and it looked as if each family had the choice to insert a religious symbol (Cross for Christian, etc.), and a couple of lines of their choice. Some families had beautiful messages, or the names of their remaining family members, some scripture, etc.

I was reading some of them out loud to Curt as we were slowly going – taking time to look at the ages (average probably 24 with the oldest being one 39 year old and the next oldest at 32), the dates they died (most in October/November which is right when the railway work was finishing up - heartbreaking), and when I got to a message that had a personal favorite verse, “Greater love hath no one than this, than he who lay his life down for his friend,” I only made it past the word “hath” before my breath caught, I choked up and then broke down. I then walked silently on while Curt took a few photos behind me, then we read a plaque at the front that told more of the story before it was time to go with the expectation we would see the actual bridge and railway after the temple.

Then we got on our way to Tiger Temple where we first ate breakfast with the monks and watched them pray, then we got to feed the baby tigers their milk (aged 3 months) out of bottles and play with them for a bit before it was time to take them on their walk. Then it was time to walk the 9 month olds and take them to play in the waterfall area where they let them off their leads and we played with them in the enclosure. It was great… we had toys, and they were running around playing like crazy. Then it was time to give them their baths (much like bathing Maverick), then time to feed them some warm chicken from our hands… the whole time we’ve been told how to handle ourselves around them as though they are hand-raised they are still wild animals with loads of instinct!

Then back to the baby-babies to play with them in their enclosure for awhile… they’re just like little puppies really, but bigger, with a lot more power. You get to pet them, swat-play with them, use toys and tires, and just enjoy their youth and playfulness in such an unreal way.

Then it was time to go walk one of the big boys down the canyon to watch the big tigers play in the water for a bit… how AWESOME! Walking the tiger down was getting to witness a power in an animal that I’ve never seen so close before… two people, one on each side, leash in one hand and other hand firmly on the tiger’s back. Then down in the canyon they had 9 tigers off their leashes with us (4 tourists) in an open cage with their trainers “guarding” us in a line just in case the tigers during play happened to venture too close… we were literally feet away from watching these tigers play with each other. It was just the coolest thing ever to watch them splashing around and seeing their behavior so up close.

Then we had a photo opportunity with one of the big boys, Tosho, who is that picture perfect specimen of a HUGE and beautiful tiger… got to kneel down by him, hands on him, and just awesome!

Then it was time to leave Tiger Temple after 4 hours of constant interaction with tigers of all ages, to go to see the bridge over the Kwai River, which is part of the Death Railway. We got there and it was really a small village/town with a few things around the bridge area but not much else… I kind of liked it that way because the “second war” was really the focal point.

There was an old train that the Japanese used to transport supplies that was pretty cool, a war museum, and we got to walk across the bridge itself and think about the conditions and what it would have been like as a POW. Panali pointed out where the US monument was dedicated to our soldiers who died, and she was careful to note to us that there are no Americans there as we chose to repatriate our dead back home. We lost 356 men on the building of the railway, which isn’t as many as the other countries as it was built from 1942 to 1943 when we weren’t quite in the war yet… our Allies lost thousands more than we did on this railway as a result.

We also learned about the bombing of the bridge by the Allies in 1945 and wondered what it must have been like – a mixture of happiness, relief and fear, I’m sure, of getting through yet another obstacle. The Japanese tied POW’s to the bridge in an effort to deter the Allies from bombing their supply route, which I can’t even imagine, and how every year there is a memorial with fireworks to honor the bombing (that sounds funny but they have a plane fly over and precisely when it crosses over they shoot off fireworks) as Thailand was under occupation by Japan and it symbolized the beginning of the end of the “second war.”

I wanted a flower… they’re usually everywhere, but of course not when I needed one, so Panali, our so sweet Thai guide sent her son on a scooter to go get some orchids and jasmine for me to throw off the bridge into the river. Curt stayed behind to take some pictures so of course again I became a basketcase walking out on the bridge.

Overall it was an unexpected element to the day, but I felt proud to have witnessed it, and I felt proud that the locals are proud of it as well. It was very humbling to learn about this piece of history and very important to remember, no matter how awful it is to imagine, because I believe when you choose to overlook or forget the unpleasant parts of war, you dishonor those who gave their lives trying to make this world a better place.

As an extra bonus right there at the river market there was a baby leopard that Panali had told us about – orphaned and about 2 months old and ADORABLE, so we paid 100 Baht (roughly $3-$4) for me to hold her, feed her, love on her and get pictures of her. She was so soft (softer than the tigers) and just gorgeous… it was just an awesome day!

Then a 2.5 hour drive back to Bangkok where we had a late lunch and are now resting… Having a great time though and excited for Siem Reap, Cambodia and then Vietnam next… should have more great stories!