Tigers and Bridges

From Bangkok I headed towards Kanchanaburi to visit the war cemeteries and famous bridge over the river kwae and 'death railway'. The bridge is really just well..a bridge and not being a fan of the film or a bridge spotter I could really only appreciate it for its beautiful location and respect what it stood for and the terrible things that happened there. I travelled for three hours along the death railway and realised why it is called death railway I felt sure there must have been an easier more accessible place to build a railway but maybe the location was chosen was as out of punishment as it was about access logistics. The museum did not really tell me much but had some unusual exhibits such as the dental surgery used by the Japanese during the war...

I had heard much about the Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery or 'Tiger Temple' a couple of hours West of the bridge and was rather excited. Its mooted as a sanctuary where tigers rescued by monks life together and in harmony with each other. I had hoped to observe this. What I discovered was a different thing the wildlife sanctuary was great and it was amazing to see so many animals that otherwise would have been dead. However the tiger element was not what expected. It was originally a low key place where the tigers were rescued and lived with the monks in the temple. The down side of tourism has seen an increased interest and its now more like a tiger petting place. The tigers are 'tame' and can be touched the money raised from the sanctuary entrance fees is apparently going towards a new project to prepare rescued tigers to go back into the wild however to do this the monks would have to change their whole approach towards the tigers and thus the main tourist attraction and income...I will be watching that space.

Pics show me with a tiger, me on 'the bridge' view from the death railway (it was very high on a cliff !)