Tiger Temple : Thialand

There aren’t many places in the world where you can touch a fully-grown tiger, but the monks at Thailand’s Tiger Temple allow you to get up close and personal with their domesticated brood of big cats. Just a couple of hours’ drive outside Bangkok in the Kanchanaburi province, not far from the world famous Bridge Over The River Kwai, lies the Tiger Temple of Thailand, formally known as Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno. Since 1999, the monks here have taken care of tigers which have been rescued from poachers in the nearby Thai-Burmese border jungle - and to date they have 17 fully grown tigers and tiger cubs living within the temple grounds. Every afternoon, the tigers are let out of their cages and taken down to a quarry which has a natural pool for them to bathe and play in. Visitors can walk down into the quarry and see the tigers from only a few feet away - there’s a single rope between you and them. Most of the tigers simply sit stretched out in the sun - they are nocturnal creatures so they laze around during the day. Some of the younger tigers are pretty frisky however - on both occasions I’ve been to the temple, they’ve been busy playing in the pond - “playing” in this case meaning “whacking each other in the face with their paws”. (See the photo gallery to see what I mean).